The Pieces of the People We Love
by thecatharsis
Summary: Blake. Yang. Ruby. Weiss. Blake's utter infatuation with Yang. Yang's confused attraction to Blake. Weiss' headaches. Ruby's way of making Weiss spin. All in the same loft. Love never did run smooth. Modern!AU.
1. We Come Together

Blake couldn't deny it anymore. She was extremely in love with Yang Xiao Long. From the way she smiled to show her straight, white teeth, to the lilac eyes that made Blake feel infinitely smaller and bigger than she ever could be.

So it was tough, to say the least, that she was Blake's roommate. It was tough when Blake woke up in the morning and saw her exiting her room at the same time, wearing nothing but a tank top that rode up _just so_ when she stretched, and a pair of very fitting shorts. It was tough when she laughed so easily with Blake in whatever they did. It was especially tough when she chose to saunter around after her shower wearing that towel and nothing else.

But then again, Blake Belladonna's life was built on tough. She could handle this. Blake peeked over her book to look at the front door, the ears hidden in her bow twitching as footsteps approached. There was silence before the person on the other side of the door cursed, and a deliberate 'thump' against the door was heard.

Blake couldn't help but smile. Another 'thump', before the voice called out.

"Blaaaaaakkkeeeeeeee," Yang groaned, exasperated. Blake dog-eared the page she was on and walked towards the door.

"You know, you should forget your keys less often," she opened the door, revealing the tall blonde, who was smiling in spite of her annoyance. "It'd save us both some headaches." She looked at the red spot on her forehead where she had banged her head against the door. Yang grinned at her.

"Yeah, well. It's worth it when you get to be the first thing I see after a long day," she said, smooth as ever. Blake rolled her eyes as Yang walked into the loft, depositing(violently throwing) her duffel bag into her room before going to the kitchen.

"Had fun then?"

Yang took a swig from her bottle of water before answering. "Yeah! Yeah. The kids were great. I had a good time teaching them."

Recently, Yang had been hired by her favoured gym to teach gymnastics to kids. She was initially hesitant when Mr. Willems, the owner of the gym had asked, nervous at the thought of having to take care of children. But the first day had shown she had nothing to worry about. Blake had to even accompany her there to calm her nerves.

Blake smiled at her from the couch. "I told you you had nothing to worry about."

"Well, lesson learned. Blake is very smart and pretty."

Blake nodded in agreement.

"Hey, where's Ruby and Weiss?" Their other two roommates. Blake scrunched her nose, looking at the cat shaped clock above the TV.

"Ruby's probably almost done with classes. Weiss went grocery shopping."

Yang cocked a hip, looking at the tacky little cat clock.

"We have to throw that stupid thing out."

Blake furrowed her brows at the blonde.

"Cat Clocksworth stays."

Yang laughed at that, so of course Blake smiled too. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew just how much trouble she was in. But with Yang in the front of her mind, laughing the way she did, Blake didn't seem to care too much.

"Fine. It's a cute name for a tacky clock. It stays." Yang shook her head, even as she smiled.

"Thank you", Blake said, returning to her book. Yang headed over to the shared bathroom, and the loft was left in silence for a while, the only sounds being the sounds of pages turning, the sounds of the shower running, and Yang's little song she was singing. With her heightened hearing, Blake could hear the tiny tune being sung by the resident blonde. She could also hear what a good singer she was. Another addition to the list of reasons she was head over heels for her. Blake began mentally preparing as she heard the shower stop, knowing that Yang-

"Hey Blake, you feeling hungry yet?"

Walked around with a slightly too small towel wrapped around her body, barely covering what it needed to, with her legs smooth and still shining from the damp and the juncture where her legs met her lower back _hello_ -

Blake cleared her mind, blinking several times, making sure her mouth was properly shut, and clearing her throat. Focus. Yang asked if she was hungry.

"I," Blake scratched at her cheek, looking over to Cat Clocksworth for help, and getting nothing. Good for nothing, chrono-cat. She cleared her throat again. "I might have worked up an appetite."

Yang flashed a brilliant smile.

"Alright, as soon as Weiss gets back, lets go pick up Ruby and have us all a nice dinner!"

Blake deliberately and almost too forcefully shoved herself back inside her book, forcing her eyes back onto the lines telling her of the secret to immortality being kept in a bookstore. Just anywhere but the sight of... rapture.

Mercifully, the door opened at that moment, and Weiss Schnee entered, two bags of groceries balanced in her hands as she maneuvered to unlock the door. Yang, seeing the young Schnee struggling, walked over to help.

Weiss looked at her and sighed.

"Yang, put your clothes on!"

Yang stopped halfway to Weiss, crossing her arms and frowning.

"I try to be helpful..." she muttered, rolling her eyes. Weiss expertly ignored her, making her way to the kitchen to set the bags down.

"Loft rules. Put your clothes on!"

Yang put her hands on her hips now.

"I just got out of the shower!"

Weiss stopped unpacking the groceries to look at her blonde room-mate, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Yang. Go. Put. Your. Clothes. On."

Yang finally huffed and relented, going into her room and shutting the door. Weiss gave Blake a look, and mouthed 'you're welcome'. Blake feigned ignorance, returning once more to her book. Weiss always did have the uncanny ability to see right through her. It was mildly irritating.

Fifteen minutes passed as the sounds of a hairdryer buzzed from Yang's room before she came out, her hair no longer damp and more importantly, fully clothed.

"There, clothes. Are you happy now, Schnee?"

* * *

Ruby sat awkwardly on the curb, intently focused on her 3DS, playing Pokemon. Yang had said that she was going to pick them up to go to dinner shortly after she left class, so she was waiting for her sister and roommates by the side of the road. People passing by gave weird looks at the teenage girl with her hood up playing Pokemon on the side of the road, but she paid them no mind. At least, until somebody took it upon themselves to sit beside her.

"Hel-lo!" said the orange haired girl sitting beside her. "My name is Penny!" She was bright as day, with freckles smattering the bridge of her nose and gathering near her cheeks. Ruby startled at her presence.

"Are you alright?" Penny continued. "What is your name?"

Ruby quirked a brow at her, pausing her game.

"Uh- hi. I-I'm Ruby?"

The girl had a weird way of speaking. Chipper and very excited, almost mechanically so. It was like the voice an adult more responsible than Ruby would use to talk to a child.

"Hel-lo Ruby!" she smiled bright. "Are you alright?" Penny asked again.

The Kindergarten Teacher voice. The nice demeanor. Asking if Ruby was alright, twice now. It suddenly clicked, then. Penny thought she was some sort of lost kid, or maybe even a runaway. Ruby frowned.

"I'm fine!" she said, a defensive tone colouring the edges of her voice. "I'm just waiting for my sister to come pick me up, and I was playing my-" she stopped herself from rambling too much. She was still sort of offended that Penny thought she was a kid. Okay, so maybe she did get bumped up a few grades when she was in middle school, making her younger than most of her school mates here in Beacon. That was probably attributing to this whole lost puppydog act. But the age gap was just a year or two! Ruby decided to show this girl up a bit.

"Yeah," she cleared her throat. "We're going to dinner, and I just got done with classes." She jerked a thumb to the campus building behind her.

"Class was pretty okay. The work isn't too hard," she smirked, putting on a bit of a haughty air about her. "Professor's kind of a stick in the mud, though," Ruby chuckled, as pretentious as she could.

"Yeah, Professor Ironwood. Ol' Jimmy I call him. Hah!" she rolled her eyes, smirking as smugly as she could. "College jokes. Y'know. For college kids. Which I am. A college kid, that is. Yeah."

Penny's smile dimmed a bit as she raised one ginger eyebrow. "Yes... I know. We are in the same class, after all?"

Ruby froze, stylus in her hand.

"Uh... what?"

Penny tilted her head, looking at Ruby curiously. "Yes. You're the child prodigy who got into college a little early. I sit in front of you. Father wants to make sure I can hear him loud and clear."

At that moment, Ruby wished for nothing more than a meteor to hit her. Or perhaps hit the whole world, vapourizing this whole moment from existence. She was still frozen, a mortified expression on her face.

Penny took the expression to be a reaction to her previous statement. "Oh, it's not like that. Father is very sweet. He just wants to make sure I don't miss anything important, in case he stutters or doesn't speak clearly enough."

Ruby rested her head in the heel of her palms. She was such an idiot...

Okay, so this girl was actually being nice to her and didn't think she was some dumb idiot kid, and Ruby went and made fun of her dad, not to mention she totally didn't know who she was, even though she'd sat in front of her not 15 minutes ago. How could she have missed that bright orange hair?

"Um... I didn't mean the thing about Professor Ironwood-" Crap. Crap. Crap. "He's actually- Oh gosh..."

The sound of the car approaching might as well have been a choir of angels. 'Ruby you awkward idiot, here's your get out of jail free card', they sang, in a key of something like b minor. The car honked it's horn, and the windows rolled down, and Yang appeared, sticking her head out.

"Ruby!"

Thanking whoever had decided to bless her with this, Ruby pocketed her 3DS and stood up. She looked at Penny briefly (not directly at her face of course. Somewhere less awkward, like the top of her head).

"Uh- Igottagonowbye!" she fired out, running over to the car, violently opening the door, practically diving in before slamming it shut.

"Ruby, what is going on?" Weiss exclaimed, disgruntled at the lump of Ruby Rose that landed on her when she jumped in. Ruby disentangled herself from the Schnee, leaning forward to Yang.

"That was awkward as fluff! Drive, drive!" she repeatedly smacked the back of her seat.

Yang chuckled, but complied, mercifully pulling away from the spot where Penny now stood.

* * *

Weiss had already decided long ago that Yang and Ruby were children. Yang was 21, and Ruby was 17, and here they were having a spitball match while waiting for their food to arrive.

It was irritating, to say the least. Not to mention unsanitary. Weiss folded her arms, glaring at the both of them as the two siblings chewed up napkins and spit at each other across the table. She could only pray that her patience would hold until the food got here.

A wet ball of napkin smacked into the wall beside Weiss' ponytail, and suddenly all her prayers were dashed.

"Alright, that's enough!" Weiss threw her arms up before snatching the straws from each sister. They both gave identical groans of disappointment.

"Weiss!" they both cried.

Weiss glared at the pair, icy fury in her eyes. Ruby conceded, sinking away. Yang furrowed her brows, resting her chin on her palm.

"You're no fun today," she pouted.

Blake was, as usual, buried in a book, paying no mind to her roommates. At least she wasn't getting on Weiss' last nerve. The two siblings sat in blissful silence until the drinks arrived, with Weiss shooting icy daggers and any one of them who dared to try anything funny. The waiter laid the drinks out. A fruity alcoholic beverage for Yang, a slightly less flamboyant one for Blake, a martini for Weiss, and of course a soda that came with a crazy straw for Ruby.

"Aw, sweet!" she exclaimed, immediately taking a drink from the straw and taking delight in the way the drink sped along up. Weiss rolled her eyes, smiling. Ruby would be Ruby. At least her child-like way of being was harmless this time.

"I propose a toast!" Yang exclaimed, holding up her hot pink beverage. Her roommates did the same with their drinks.

"To our friendship, and to me surviving my first day at work!"

Well, one couldn't argue that was indeed a cause for celebration. Especially in Yang's case. The four of them clinked their glasses together and took a drink.

The rest of dinner went smoothly, as all the tenants of the loft ate and talked, enjoying each other's company.

* * *

Blake worked at a bookstore (naturally). It was, of course, perfect for her. She got to sit and read books until somebody came in, which wasn't all too often. So basically she got to sit and read books in a quiet place. Perfect.

And then Sun Wukong was hired. She didn't mind it too much. When Velvet had quit for her new job offer as a model, Blake had pretty much expected a new hire to soon fill the spot she had left. As long as they didn't bother her too much when she was reading, Blake really didn't mind. Velvet had understood the value of reading in peace and quiet, for which she was very grateful.

Sun wasn't quite the opposite of what she wanted.

Okay, honestly he was the exact opposite of what she wanted. He was rambunctious and hyper. He was a monkey Faunus, so he climbed all about the bookshelves, hanging on the balcony. He liked talking. A lot. And he apparently liked talking to Blake. A lot.

But the thing was, Blake didn't find herself minding too much. She minded at first, but she grew to warm up to the messy haired blonde. He was funny and very observant. He was bright and happy. He was fun to be around. Blake had grown to like him very much as a friend and co-worker. Eventually he would grow to respect Blake's quiet reading time, compromising by finding a balance between talking to her and arranging books in the back.

Sun Wukong was a good friend to Blake Belladonna. It was a rainy morning when he asked her an unexpected question.

"Hey, Blake, you wanna go out sometime?"

Blake quirked an eyebrow at him, peering over her novel. Sun was leaning, resting his arms on the counter opposite her, looking at her intently.

"What?"

"Do you want to go out sometime?" he asked again. "On like, a date type thing," he further clarified, adjusting his collar and glancing off outside the window.

Oh.

"Oh."

"Oh?"

Oh.

Blake hadn't expected this. She put the book down, gathering her thoughts.

Her first instinct was to say no. Just based on the simple fact that he was very much not Yang Xiao Long.

He wasn't bad looking. In fact, he was attractive. He was fun to be around. Blake valued him as a friend. Blake enjoyed spending time with him. He was charming in his own way.

But he wasn't Yang. And for that alone, Blake couldn't accept him.

"I... no. I'm sorry."

He looked down to the floor, his face downcast. The pair sat in silence for a short while. Sun then looked up.

"Oh. Well. That's okay. I just find you really fun to be with and..." he smiled then, shrugging. "Okay. Standing offer. I wouldn't want you to miss out on my magnificence."

Blake smiled too, and then everything was back to normal.

* * *

It was the same rainy morning that Ruby met Penny again. She'd just gotten off the bus, standing in the shelter of the bus stop as she zipped her jacket up and slipped on the hood, getting ready to dash to campus. In hindsight, she should have noticed how dark the sky was when she was going out and brought an umbrella. She shrugged. Hindsight was 20/20 after all. Or 1, if you would just simplify that fraction. She never did understand that phrase.

"Sal-u-tations, friend!" came a very chipper voice from behind her. Who else could it be but Penny, in a green raincoat and a closed umbrella. Ruby jumped a bit at her unexpected entrance.

"Penny!" she brushed her fringe nervously, remember their last awkward altercation. "What- uh. What are you doing here?" Ruby cleared her throat.

"I was walking to class when I saw you here," Penny replied brightly.

"Oh. Uh... cool."

The pair sat in silence for a while, with Ruby looking around awkwardly while Penny continued smiling.

Ruby brushed off some imaginary dust from her jacket, clearing her throat.

"Would you like to share this umbrella?" Penny finally said. Ruby cocked her head to the left.

"Really?"

"Of course," sunshine and innocence seemed to radiate from Penny. Was this just how she was naturally? It was... nice. Unexpectedly so, she was beginning to endear herself to the hooded girl. "You're my friend, why wouldn't I?"

Ruby smiled then. "Yeah. We are friends."

And so the pair walked to class together underneath a cream coloured umbrella, talking all the way.

* * *

Blake saw it as she waited for the streetlight to change. Underneath her trench coat and umbrella, she doubted Yang would have seen her. But she doubted Yang would have noticed anyway, being all preoccupied as she was in the arms of a tall, dark haired man, kissing in the rain just right outside their building.

Blake stopped, freezing still as she felt something like an icy sting in her guts. Something like a punch to the chest. Something like her heart had gone all twisty-turny in her ribcage. She gripped the handle of the umbrella tighter, standing still even as the light to cross turned green and everyone was moving. To her, it seemed like the world didn't exist anymore.

Blake turned around, and walked. She walked with no destination in mind other than to get the hell away. Anywhere would be better than here.

Later, as she slid into a coffee shop, taking a little plastic bag for her umbrella and getting in line to order, she thought about giving Sun a call.

Blake decided to leave that for later, when the wound was not quite as fresh. She sat at an empty booth, pulling out her book and sipping on the piping hot coffee, not quite feeling the scald on her tongue. Not quite feeling anything.

She read her book in peace and quiet, and she left only when the shop closed. When she got home, everybody was in their rooms, so she quietly did the same, sparing a glance at the room opposite, thinking of the blonde that resided within. She still felt hollow, so she locked her door and pulled her curtains shut and laid on her bed.

Blake didn't sleep much that night. And if anybody noticed her pillow was damp, she would claim it was her drool.

Blake Belladonna's life was built on tough. She could handle this.

Well, she could try.

* * *

 **It's 3.37 am as of now. Tonight has been filled with a lot of really crappy heartbreak, but it's not her fault. Unrequited love is just a really special type of hell. I just felt the need to tell somebody that.**

 **But hey, I'll write. It's all I can do. And I'm doing it. Enjoy!**


	2. Lunch Time

Blake wasn't bothered by it.

No way.

She wasn't in the least bothered by the way Yang had a stupid new boyfriend named Arin who was tall and muscular and had golden-brown eyes and made Yang laugh. She wasn't even spying on them secretly when they were hanging out on the roof, talking or making out and that did not, in absolutely no way, make her feel spiteful and miserable. She didn't even mind him coming over all the damn time and sitting on _her_ spot on the couch watching TV with Yang.

Blake was fine. Absolutely. What did she have to feel jealous about anyway? Over Yang? That was just ridiculous. Besides, the guy wasn't anything to be jealous about. His name was Arin, for crying out loud. Who even spelled it like that? It was a stupid spelling of a dumb name. It should be spelled Aaron at all times, even for girls. Yeah. He was stupid.

So no, Blake wasn't bothered by it.

"Blake, I can clearly see you're bothered by this."

Damn it.

Blake glared at Weiss, who was standing at the doorway of her room, arms folded. She glared and wished really hard that Weiss would just shrink and disappear. Or explode. That would be much more satisfying.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Don't glare at me like that. You've been moody and quiet ever since Yang got that new boyfriend of hers," she paused. "Moreso than usual."

Blake defiantly returned to her book. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Weiss sighed explosively, rolling her entire _being_ at her black-haired roommate, if it was even possible. She entered the room, shutting the door behind her.

" _Blake_ ," Weiss said her name with meaning, sitting on the foot of her bed. Blake staunchly ignored her, turning a page of her book.

"I'm-" Weiss faltered, looking for the right words. Emotions were never her strong suite, having been raised up by a disconnected father and mostly butlers.

"If you want to," Weiss swallowed thickly. Blake looked at her then, raising an eyebrow. "Talk about it...?" she forced the words out, and they left a strange taste in her mouth. Blake finally sighed, taking pity on her friend.

"I'm okay, Weiss. I was actually planning to go out with Sun today."

It wasn't a total lie. The thought had crossed her mind several times. Each time it sounded more and more appealing.

"Okay," Weiss wrinkled her nose, having met Sun before and not seeing his appeal. Especially since he was a... he was one of _those people_. But now wasn't the appropriate time to bring up her disapproval of the monkey Faunus. She figured any distraction Blake could get from Yang would be a welcome one.

She got up and started walking out, but paused.

"If you ever need to..." a pink tinge appeared on her cheeks. "We're friends, okay?"

Blake smiled then. "Okay."

Weiss left and shut the door, leaving her alone. She reached over to grab her phone from the night stand, thumbing over to her contacts until she saw Sun's name.

* * *

Ruby was swamped. Much like an ogre (especially because of her fondness for Smash Mouth). The thought of Shrek distracted her for all of 2 seconds before she returned to the mess of papers on her desks, and the mountains of textbooks she had, open to various different pages and scattered about. Her mug of coffee had long since been empty, and she felt like her brain was going the same way too.

Ruby groaned, sounding like a cross between a dying seal and another older dying seal. She slammed her head on the table and left herself there.

Of all the ways to go, Ruby didn't think that dying from finals was very high on her list.

The door to her room opened, flooding it with light from outside. She stared, bleary eyed at the figure in the doorway.

"Wha-" she muttered, her mind hazy. Was this what dying was like? Was this the light at the end of the tunnel? Was this the Grim Reaper?

"Ruby," Weiss began. "How long have you been in here? Have you even showered today?"

No, it was much worse than the Grim Reaper.

Weiss walked into the room. "Ugh, This place is a mess!"

She opened the curtains to expose the room to sunlight. Ruby almost hissed at her. How could this devil-woman enter her domain and torture her like this? Weiss put her hands on her hips, turning off the lamp on her desk.

"Ruby, this isn't healthy. You need to take a break."

Ruby scoffed. "You, of all people-"

Weiss clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Yes. I know. Which means I know better than anybody how important it is to take a break once in a while."

A few years prior, Weiss had had a period of time where she would lock herself in her room for days at a time, doing nothing but work. Doing her best to impress her father by contributing to the family business. Working herself to death to impress a man who barely cared about her. It had taken Ruby and many more of Weiss' friends to convince her to stop. Eventually Weiss would realize how harmful it was. She had cut herself off from her father and the fanily business, choosing instead to forge her own path. Her father had very begrudgingly agreed to let her.

Ruby scowled, prompting Weiss to sigh.

"First Blake, then you. I can't believe I have to play Mommy for the both of you," she rolled her eyes. Again. For the millionth time.

"Go take a shower and get ready. We'll get some lunch," she released her hold on Ruby's mouth.

For as much as Weiss put in an icy front, she genuinely did care about her friends. Though it had taken a while for them to break her out of her icy shell. Ruby suddenly smiled at Weiss, her animosity towards her gone.

"Fine," she conceded, getting out of her chair, heading out of her room. She turned, halfway out the door, to walk back to Weiss and give her a hug. Weiss was suddenly squished against her younger roommate in a side hug, and she was very uncomfortable.

"I'm glad I met you," Ruby whispered before heading out properly this time. Weiss blushed then, and she wasn't entirely sure why.

* * *

Sun was excited. Sun was very, very excited.

He kept checking and re-checking his attire, debating on whether to button or unbutton the second button on his shirt. Not to brag, but Sun was very proud of his body. His body that he had worked very hard to get, thank you very much. So what if he decided to show it off just a teensy bit? He just didn't know if it looked better up or down.

He checked the time, figuring if it was already appropriate to come up. He had arrived at her apartment building 10 minutes early, his nerves getting the better of him. He keyed his car off, then suddenly self-conscious about how shabby and old it was. What if Blake was embarrassed and asked to take her car or something? What if her car was really nice? Did she even have a car? She always walked to work.

Sun took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair. He told his brain to shut up as he got out of the car and entered the building, taking the lift to the fifth floor. No time for doubts. Blake.

He had visited the loft once before, when Blake had forgotten her phone at the store. She'd called him using her roommate's phone, and he offered to deliver it. Like a nice gentleman would do.

He walked down the hallway to the last door, running his hand through his hair once before knocking. Suddenly he became acutely aware of how hard his heart was pounding. For a few seconds, it was just him and the hallway alone. He considered going back downstairs to wait in the car. Then he heard somebody on the other side of the door before it opened to reveal a younger girl with pale skin and dark crimson hair.

"Hey, Ruby," Sun smiled as he greeted her. She'd come around the bookstore a few times before, and Sun liked her. She was adorable first of all, and she radiated with childlike innocence, despite being only a few years younger than him. Ruby smiled back at him.

"Hi Sun! What are you doing here? Did Blake forget her phone again?" she quirked a brow and tilted her head at him.

"Uh, not really," he swayed his tail this way and that absentmindedly. "It's more of like a we're going out to lunch type thing?"

"Oh. Okay," she gestured him to enter the loft. "Well, I guess relax for a bit, I'll go get Blake."

Sun nodded, entering the loft and taking a seat on the couch. Ruby went down into the hall and entered Blake's room without knocking.

" _Miss Belladonna_ , are you going out on a date with Sun?" she began, using her most scandalized voice. Blake was in front of her bed, with different clothes laid out in front of her. She sighed quietly before looking up at Ruby, confused. How could she have known that?

Unless...

"Is he here?!"

Ruby nodded, smiling. "He's waiting for you in the living room."

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

"Ruby, help me," she practically whined.

Sun, meanwhile, was perplexed with the cat clock hanging on the wall above the TV. It was... amazing. It was so incredibly tacky, and he immediately knew it was Blake's. He knew about the cat ears she'd kept hidden underneath her bow the moment he saw her. That, and her affinity for tuna. Still, he wasn't going to question her. She had her reasons for doing what she did, and Sun figured she'd tell him when she was ready. He wondered if her roommates knew, and if they didn't, then the cat clock would be such a slap to the face when or if they found out. He huffed a small breath of laughter. He knew Blake probably did it on purpose.

Then Blake appeared, and Sun couldn't help his smile.

"Hey," he stood up. "You look great. You ready to go?" he offered her his arm. She smiled wider and rolled her eyes, but wrapped her arm around his anyway. Sun was, excuse the pun, beaming.

"Bye guys, have fun!" Ruby called out to them as they left.

* * *

Despite Ruby's insistence, they had not gone to spy on Sun and Blake. Instead Weiss took her to a special place.

Greene's Diner wasn't anything special. It wasn't very remarkable. They food they served was okay, and the coffee was marginally better.

But to Weiss, this place was sanctuary.

As soon as Weiss was allowed a car, and freedom to go wherever she pleased, she would visit this diner whenever she needed a break. A break from her father or her sister or the towering empire that was her father's company. She came here to breathe, and the owner, a large bearded man named Bruce, knew her well. Weiss thought it only fitting she bring Ruby here. She deserved a break after all. Weiss had noticed her drowning herself in her books as finals approached, and took pity on her friend, knowing very well how that felt.

Weiss pulled into a parking spot and put her car into park, turning to look at Ruby.

"You like waffles, don't you?"

"Uh-huh," came Ruby's confused reply. Weiss nodded, unbuckling her seatbelt and turning off the car. The pair entered the diner, with it's white and black tiled floor, with a counter at the front with stools, and tables and booths littered around. A little bell sounded as Weiss opened the door, and she immediately caught the attention of the owner, who was writing down an order.

"Weiss!" the man boomed. "Good to see you!"

Weiss smiled at him warmly. "Good afternoon, Mr Greene. This is my friend Ruby," she gestured to the crimson haired girl.

"She could use a break."

Bruce made a little 'ah' and nodded in understanding. He finished writing up the order and clipped it to the kitchen window. He turned back to Weiss.

"Your usual spot is open," he cocked a head to the corner booth. "And I thought I told you to call me Bruce. Mr Greene makes me feel old. Or like somebody out of a Tarantino movie," he pursed his lips. "Mostly old."

"I know," Weiss smirked, walking Ruby over to the corner booth. Bruce let out a wheezing laugh at that.

Throughout the whole conversation, Ruby had done nothing but worn an extremely confused expression on her face. Weiss explained the significance of the diner to her.

"It helped. And I know you need a break. It's important," she said matter-of-factly. Ruby couldn't help the smile that graced her features. She knew Weiss cared about her, but it was still nice to see her show it. Soon, a waiter came over with a stack of waffles and a large milkshake for Ruby, and a sandwich and coffee for Weiss. The two friend chatted throughout lunch and Weiss found herself not minding having to take care of Ruby so much.

* * *

Blake was surprised to see Sun had planned their entire day out so immaculately. Apparently he was very very excited at the prospect of spending time with Blake. The thought flattered her. Especially so since she knew Sun to be the type to just fly-by-wire and wing almost everything he did (to frustrating success, actually).

They had had lunch at a park restaurant, and afterwards had ice-cream while they strolled around, talking. Talking to Sun was easy. Contrasting against Blake's quiet and more subtle nature, Sun was more active and animated as he spoke, frequently using wild hand gestures to emphasise a point. Frequently emphasising points. Blake found she didn't mind his wilder personality. Blake found herself enjoying the day, enjoying Sun's company. Suddenly she didn't remember why she was so hesitant to agree to this in the first place.

The pair sat at a park bench as they finished their ice-cream, but the conversation continued. Somewhere along the line Blake found Sun's hand slipping into hers. He squeezed slightly, hesitant and slightly unsure. Blake froze for half a beat before squeezing back, and the conversation continued on. And even when the sun came to set and they got up to return home, Blake didn't let go of his hand. And Sun couldn't stop the smile on his face.

Sun made what would have been another miserable day considerably better. Blake told him as much on the drive home. He stayed silent and blushed.

They came to a stop outside her apartment building, and the car was loud with silence. Sun opened and closed his mouth several times, each time his words died in his mouth before he could say them. Finally he cleared his throat.

"That was really really fun, I uh-"

Blake grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him into a kiss.

"I'll see you Monday?" she said when she pulled away. Sun could only make some combination of grunt-laugh and nod. Blake smiled wide as she got out and waved to him, entering the building.

If Blake was honest, she had no idea where this was all going.

If Blake was honest, she really didn't care.

Yang greeted her as she unlocked the door to the loft.

"Hey, Blake!" the blonde smiled warmly, looking up from her phone. "I missed ya. Everyone's gone and I had the place all by my lonesome. Where've you been?"

Blake shrugged noncommittally, taking her shoes off and walking towards the kitchen. Yang immediately scoffed, leaning over the back of the couch to look at her.

"You're vague and mysterious but you are never this vague and mysterious," she leapt over the couch to come to rest on the kitchen island. "What is it? What's the big secret?"

Blake took a long swig from her glass of water, purposefully avoiding Yang's eye.

"Tellll meeeeeeeeeeee," Yang whined.

Blake sighed as she finished her glass of water. There was no stopping Yang when she was in this mode, so she figured she might as well tell her before she resorted to more physical methods of extracting information from Blake. She was going to find out eventually anyway.

"I was... outonadatewithsun," she mumbled quietly.

Yang barely caught that last part, and to her credit she only faltered for half a second before she smiled again, congratulating Blake and asking her how it was.

Blake could have sworn she saw Yang's face fall for half a beat. She almost dismissed it as a trick of light, or maybe she was going crazy.

No, she definitely saw that. Was she reading too much into things?

What the hell?

* * *

Weiss stopped Ruby just as they exited the elevator. She figured she might as well get it out of the way here.

"Ruby, I-"

Ruby cut her off with a hand on her shoulder. Weiss almost flinched at the contact, it being so unfamiliar to her. Ruby gently squeezed her shoulder.

"It's okay, you don't have to say anything. I know," Ruby then scrunched her nose. "At least, I think I know. I'll assume I do from your face."

Ruby slid her hand down and grasped Weiss'. Her chest tightened at the even more intimate contact.

"Thank you for today, Weiss. It was great. Really."

And she turned around and headed down the hall, her fingers unclasping fron Weiss' hands, and for a second Weiss thought it felt like _fire_.

* * *

 **I think it's pretty obvious what the endgame here is folks, but let me tell ya, it's going to be a twisty turny little road to get there. Read and review!**


	3. You and You and You and

Yang wasn't bothered by it.

No way.

She wasn't the least bit bothered by Blake's new boyfriend, Sun. She could absolutely tolerate him taking her out on dates all the time, going to nice dinners or having picnics in the park. She didn't care about how much they made out outside the apartment building before saying goodbye. She couldn't care less about the way he looked at Blake. Like-

Like _that_. Like she was... amazing. Like she was smart and funny and beautiful and fantastic.

She knew that look. She _hated_ that look.

She sighed quietly in frustration as the door shut behind the pair, leaving to catch a movie.

It would be absolutely stupid of her to be bothered by this. So no, Yang Xiao Long was not bothered by it.

"What's bothering you, sis?"

Damn it.

She left her Vault Dwellers to gather their resources as she glared at her younger sister, who had apparently decided to come out of her swamp dwelling and take a break outside. Ruby paused from her texting to give a look at Yang from her position dangling upside down from the edge of the couch.

Yang wished her sister wasn't such a supergenius sometimes. It would make her life a whole lot easier.

"Come on, something's bothering you," Ruby pointed at her. "And don't lie, I'll know."

Yang forcefully thumbed her phone to collect bottle caps. She mulled over it. What was bothering her? Blake was her own woman, and she was absolutely free to date whomever she pleased. And, if she was being honest, Sun was a pretty great guy. He perfectly complemented Blake's quiet nature by being a bit louder and more animated. He clearly cared a lot about Blake. He was sort of a perfect fit. So why was Yang so bothered by it?

Yang shook her head, locking her phone and shoving it into her pocket as she got up, collected her keys, wallet and helmet. Ruby was left pouting as Yang exited the loft.

"I'm going for a drive, be back soon!" she called out as the door slammed shut.

Ruby hummed quietly, intrigued by her sister's state of being. Drives were to clear your head. What did Yang's head need clearing of? Ruby decided, after a while, that this mystery was best left to after finals was over. For now she had to solve the mystery of how she would pass the semester. Ruby focused her attention on her phone again. That mystery would be solved after a few more cat videos, naturally.

* * *

Jaune's life was pleasant, except for when he thought too hard about it, then he'd come to the realization that it wasn't really. He could make a list of reasons why he sucked and why he was a sucky butt sucker, but his mom had always told him that people loved confidence. And confidence was the persona he would at least try to show to people He figured he could fake it, if nothing else. So it went that Jaune was a clumsy intern at a modeling agency.

Clumsy, insecure Jaune surrounded by lots of beautiful people wasn't exactly what one would call a recipe for success. It was more a recipe for poisoned muffins or something.

So Jaune would get coffee for people, doing his best not to spill anything, copy documents and basically do everything an intern did. It wasn't the best line of work, but Jaune figured he could pay his dues first.

So, ignoring all the burgeoning thoughts in his mind, his penchant for tripping and dropping things, and the shadow of his siblings that he lived in, Jaune's life was okay. If nothing else, he had a routine. Of course, Pyrrha Nikos came in and destroyed everything he had.

World famous athlete and model, Pyrrha Nikos. The one who seemed so much larger than life, even as she was posing for the camera in front of his very eyes. Her red, red hair and her eyes green and piercing.

It was all because Jaune had gotten her coffee. Like he was supposed to. He put the coffee on the table in her dressing room as she was in front of the mirror, and he mentally congratulated himself for not fucking anything up and making a fool out of himself in front of yet another beautiful woman.

Pyrrha had thanked him politely, as Pyrrha did. Jaune smiled and bowed his head, intending to smoothly slink out to run more errands, when he saw Pyrrha pull out a little cardboard box. Then he paused, and the gears in his mind whirred a bit before it clicked.

He gasped. Pyrrha startled and turned to face him, looking guilty as ever. She hadn't noticed that he was still in the room! And now he'd seen her eat a box of-

"Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes! I love that cereal! I didn't know that that was you on the box!" he walked over, taking the box from Pyrrha's hand.

"You... didn't?" she asked, terribly confused.

"No way!" he looked from the box to Pyrrha. "Though I guess that should have been sort of obvious..."

Suddenly Jaune realized he was (again) making a fool of himself in front of a beautiful woman. So much for that flawless coffee run. He smiled sheepishly, putting the little box back on her dressing table. Pyrrha quirked a brow at him.

"Sorry! I'll just," Jaune started backpedaling. "I'll just go. Now. Sorry."

"Wait!" Pyrrha called out as he tripped over a suitcase, falling flat on his bottom. Pyrrha cringed a little, even as Jaune let out a meek 'I'm fine!'.

Pyrrha walked over in two quick steps, helping Jaune up on his feet. The blonde was momentarily disoriented as he stood upright. Then he started blushing bright red.

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked, dusting his shoulders off. Jaune gulped and nodded forcefully.

"Look, if you could not tell anybody about the...?" she cocked her head off to the dressing table where the sinful little box of sugary cereal was. "People, _certain people_ are... very particular about that sort of thing."

Jaune nodded, looking confused still. Pyrrha smiled.

"Thank you-" Pyrrha stopped as she realized he hadn't caught his name.

"Jaune," he forced out. "I'm Jaune Arc."

"It's very nice to meet you Jaune."

After that, Pyrrha had started greeting him and talking to him during her shoots, whenever she had a spare moment. It made a number of males working there a certain degree of jealous that clumsy, wimpy little Jaune Arc had caught the attention of world famous beauty Pyrrha Nikos.

Jaune's routine was thoroughly smashed. Every 'hello' was another hammer into the fragile walls of his life. Her giving him her number was a giant wrecking ball. Pyrrha Nikos had well and truly messed his life up.

Jaune didn't mind too much.

* * *

It was late into the evening when Neptune got home. He unlocked his apartment door and swung it open, tossing his keys into a bowl and taking off his shoes as he yawned. It had been a long shoot, and he would have to do another one tomorrow. Being a model was not as glamourous as he thought. Well. It was still pretty cool.

He yawned again, rounding the corner into the living room with Blake and Sun on the couch furiously making out, heading into the kitchen to-

Wait.

His sleep deprived brain slowly put together the pieces and he turned around to face the two figures on top of each other on his couch. He rubbed his eyes. And again.

Then Neptune screamed.

Later, he would deny it being as girly as described. But it was. It was super girly.

Blake and Sun whipped their heads around to look at Neptune, just as surprised as he was.

"Neptune, when did you get home?" Sun asked, pulling his shirt back down as Blake got off of him and sat as far away on the couch, absolutely mortified. She looked anywhere but the two roommates, buttoning her shirt back up and smoothing the wrinkles in them.

"What are you two doing on my- aah!" he squeezed his eyes shut and put both hands on his head. "Ah!"

He put his hands out placatingly, breathing in deep. Be cool, Vasilias.

"I'm sorry. You guys just startled me. I'll just..." he left the sentence hanging as he headed into his room, shutting the door behind him.

Sun looked at Blake sheepishly. She was still blushing bright red.

"Hey. I'm sorry about that," Sun scooted over closer to her. "I should have realized how late it was and Neptune-"

"It's okay," Blake interrupted. "I should go home."

She started gathering her things as Sun sighed.

"I guess that did sort of kill the mood didn't it."

Blake smiled dryly. "Yes."

Sun shook his head, then got up to help Blake gather her purse and loose items of clothings. He slipped her jacket on her, surprising her with a kiss on the cheek. Blake blushed again.

"Is Neptune... is he going to be okay?"

Sun waved a hand dismissively. "He'll be cool about it. He knows how much I like you."

Blake couldn't have surpressed her smile if she tried. Sun really was sweet.

"Come on, I'll drive you home," Sun said, grabbing his keys from the bowl.

Two weeks of Sun Wukong, and he amazed Blake more and more each day.

Life was pretty good.

* * *

If anybody knew who she was at the gym, they were certainly discreet about it. Pyrrha stretched and flexed as she waited for Jaune's arrival. She had promised to help him work out after he'd reveal his insecurities to her about his fitness.

Jaune was sweet, funny and charming in his own way. Most of all, he was one of those rare few people who saw her as a person, and not some sort of icon, to be talked about and not talked to. Pyrrha had taken a shine to him the minute she met him, tripping over himself in the dressing room. She looked up from doing leg stretches as she sensed somebody standing over her, expecting it to be Jaune.

It was Yang. She couldn't help her small pang of disappointment.

"Heya, Pyrrha," Yang greeted, leaning on a weight machine.

"Hello Yang, what brings you here today?" Pyrrha knew Yang from college, before she had become some sort of world famous superstar. She sighed internally.

"I- uh. I needed to clear my head," Yang ran a hand through her large silky locks. "Actually, you're the perfect person to talk to right now, if you don't mind."

Pyrrha smiled brightly. "I'm waiting for my friend right now, but seeing as he isn't here yet..." she left the sentence hanging, prompting Yang to elaborate.

Yang started telling her about Blake and Sun, and how she was feeling about it. It was a rare moment of her completely being open and honest. The last time she did this, it was to Blake about a huge issue in her life, her mother. And now she was being open and honest to Pyrrha about Blake, which she figured made Blake a huge issue in Yang's life.

Pyrrha nodded sagely. Out of anybody she knew, Pyrrha was probably the most experienced person, just in terms of life. If anybody had words of wisdom to give, it would be Pyrrha Nikos. Usually Yang might talk to Blake or Ruby about something bothering her, but she knew Ruby would be at a loss, never having had a relationship before, and Blake... well. She couldn't.

"Your feelings are conflicted," Pyrrha was stood upright now, slightly taller than Yang. "You don't know what to feel and why because you don't know what you want. So, find out what it is that you want, and you'll figure out how to feel."

Pyrrha laid a hand on Yang's shoulder. "It's okay to feel however you want to feel. Love can't be justified or reasoned with using logic."

Yang paused.

Love?

What was that supposed to mean?

At that moment, Jaune appeared behind the pair. Pyrrha took notice first, Yang still deep in thought.

"Yang, this is my friend, Jaune," Pyrrha nudged the blonde. Yang shook out of her reverie, finally noticing the other, lankier, blonde.

"Jaune Arc, short, smooth, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it."

Yang tilted her head and quirked a brow.

"Do they?"

Jaune faltered. Yang looked at Pyrrha, who shrugged. Yang chuckled, shaking her head.

"I'm Yang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you," she shook his outstretched hand. "I'll be over by the punching bag if you guys need me."

She gave Pyrrha a little wink, which was honestly indecipherable to the red haired athlete. She shook her head then focused her attention onto Jaune.

"Let's get to work."

* * *

Finals. Was. Over!

Ruby could honestly do a little happy dance right then and there, in the middle of the streaming crowds of students exiting the hall. But she didn't because Yang told her to pretend to be a well-adjusted and normal adult while in school, which didn't sound like fun. She also told her to make friends, which Ruby promptly ignored.

"Ruby!" Penny called out, waving animatedly at her.

Well, mostly.

Ruby wasn't antisocial or anything, it was just that she was shy meeting new people and even though she'd been in college a year now nobody ever really talked to her and she wasn't going to go up and talk to them, that would be just weird, what if she made herself look like an idiot?

"Ruby, are you okay?" Ruby's far-off looked must have concerned her.

Case in point: Penny.

It was only through some magical stroke of luck or some act of god that Penny still managed to befriend Ruby. Although Ruby was glad for her company.

"I'm fine!" Ruby waved her hand, dismissing Penny's concerns.

Penny smiled again.

"So how did you do?"

Ruby half-shrugged. She wasn't the type to worry too much about the results of her exams just after she'd done it. She had done the best she could and she figured she would either do well or she wouldn't. No point worrying.

"Eh. How 'bout you?"

And so Penny launched into a tirade about the questions, with excitement and enthusiasm. Penny enjoyed learning and studying. A lot. And she was very good at it. She was... unique. Apparently Professor Ironwood hadn't always been a professor. He had a military background which he kept very hush-hush. A few years after Penny was born however, he decided to quit the military, wanting to spend more time with his family. However, his strict military habits had stuck around, being passed onto his daughter, and apparently so did his brilliant mind. Penny was a very regimented and smart person, and her life was a very disciplined one. Bizzarely, Penny's personality seemed to directly contradict that. She was a bubbly, free-spirited girl, and her social oddities only served to endear her to Ruby instead of turn her away.

A toast, to the socially awkward, Ruby thought.

They slowly walked to the campus entrance, Ruby listening to Penny go on and on about the paper. She didn't mind. It was interesting to hear it from a supergenius' perspective for once. As they reached the sidewalk, a black SUV suddenly drove up, coming to a halt just in front of the pair. The windows were tinted black, true secret service fashion. The window rolled down slightly, revealing a man with black hair wearing sunglasses.

"Penny. Your father is waiting," he said simply. Surprisingly, his voice was not as stoic and lifeless as Ruby thought it would be. It was actually tinged with care and gentleness that betrayed the super secret government persona this whole scenario had presented. Penny gave an 'oh', before turning to Ruby.

"Ruby, I have to go now, it's very important," Penny leaned forward and enveloped Ruby in a hug, surprising her.

Then Penny got into the car, and it drove away, leaving Ruby very, very confused.

* * *

Weiss' headache only grew in intensity as the minutes passed. She looked over the photos her editor had passed along for final approval. After a few minutes of flipping througb, she quietly hummed and nodded, putting it back in the manila envelope. At least that was the one thing that wasn't going terrible today.

Today had been a day of nightmares. Technical difficulties each and every turn, models throwing tantrums, interns spilling coffee. She felt like having an ejector button installed in her chair, just so the next time something like this happened, she could press it and just be away.

No, that would be stupid.

She would have to install an exit ceiling too and that would cost more money.

Perhaps she would get Bolin from accounting to budget for that.

Wait.

What was she doing? She was supposed to be focusing in replying to an email.

She took a sip from her coffee cup, only to find it empty.

Perfect.

Weiss sighed. Nobody ever said being the boss was easy. In fact there was a multitude of people actively saying that it was very hard and ill-advised to be one. Yet here Weiss was, in her nice office with the nice plush office with the nice white carpet and nice white desk and her nice little headache.

Snow's Modeling Agency was a fairly successful business. It was Weiss' pride and joy. Her very own company, evidence of her strength and independence to her father. Built from the ground up partially from spite, just to show everybody that she could, and she didn't need her last name to help her.

Her father hadn't approved at first of course, cutting Weiss off when she told him she wanted to forge her own path, and she didn't want to take over the Schnee Dust Corporation. Once he saw the work Weiss had done, all by herself, he had reluctantly given his blessing, not that she needed it. It was nice to see him have even a modicum of love and respect for his daughter, however shallow it was. Weiss knew he was not completely heartless.

"May!" Weiss called out to her secretary. A pink haired woman poked her head in from the door.

"Yes, Ms. Schnee?"

Weiss held out the manila envelope. "Here, take this over to printing. I've emailed Percy already, he should know what to do. And get me more coffee!"

May nodded, taking the envelope and heading out the door. "Of course Ms. Schnee."

"Thank you," Weiss said simply, returning back to her work, ignoring the jackhammer in her head.

* * *

Jaune was the master of not fucking this up. He totally got this. May asked him to bring Ms. Schnee coffee. He'd done this a million times. He could do it again.

He tipped two spoonfuls of sugar into the thing. Just the way Ms. Schnee always liked it.

He was cool. Now to just walk all the way down the hall and to the right. May had said she was going out to run an errand, so he would have to go in himself and give it to her. No problem. Easy as pie.

Jaune swallowed hard.

"Having trouble walking there, man?" a blue haired man came into his peripheral, leaning against the refrigerator. Neptune. Jaune was acquainted with him, having seen him around during many shoots. He was so cool it was honestly frustrating.

Jaune scowled at him, prompting Neptune to laugh.

"What are you doing man?" he gestured to Jaune's... entire being.

Jaune sighed. "I'm supposed to get this coffee over to Ms. Schnee's office, and I'm trying really hard to not mess it up."

Neptune nodded in understanding. "And who is this," he made air quotes. "'Ms. Schnee' you speak of?"

"Seriously?" Jaune laughed. "She's the owner of the company? Weiss Schnee? Schnee as in Schnee Dust Company?"

Neptune's stare was blank. "I always thought the owner was some Snow whatever."

The two stood in silence, with Jaune absolutely befuddled.

"Anyway, come here. I'll hook you up man, I'll bring this thing over to Schnee."

Jaune sighed in relief then. "Really? You could do that?"

Neptune shrugged "Ain't got much else to do."

He really didn't. He'd finished up for the day, but decided to stay for a while more, knowing the timing of Sun's dates with Blake. He didn't want to be a mood killer. Neptune took the cup from Jaune.

"Down the hall and to your right, the big white door, you can't miss it."

Neptune nodded, heading off down the hallway and to the right. The big white door bore the plaque 'Weiss Schnee, CEO'. Neptune shrugged, knocking on the door before opening it.

And there, seated behind a desk, was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

She was an angel.

A _snow angel_.

" _Hello,_ " Neptune said, inserting as much velvety softness into his voice as he could, flashing her a brilliant smile. "I didn't expect to be delivering coffee to an angel today."

Weiss smiled slightly. How cute.

Cute in the way a puppy dog was cute.

Weiss had a general policy to not date puppy dogs.

Neptune put her coffe on her desk, winking as he did. Weiss rolled her eyes good naturedly.

"The name's Neptune. Neptune Vasilias."

"Yes," Weiss deadpanned. "I know. I believe your shoot finished over an hour ago?" she pointed at the schedule she had opened on her laptop.

"Thank you for the coffee Mr. Vasilias. You may leave now," Weiss put a hint of ice in her voice. As cute as he was, Weiss had a boatload of work to be done. Neptune straightened up, still smiling.

"I'll catch you later, snow angel," he said as he exited the office. Weiss smiled slightly. Not many people hit on her, surprisingly. Not that smoothly anyway. People were usually too scared to. It was sort of... refreshing.

Neptune sighed as he closed the door behind him. He had to see her again.

* * *

It was only late into the evening and at May's insistence that Weiss went home, taking her heels off and flopping onto the couch next to Yang and Ruby, watching the TV. It had been a long day, she figured she deserved a little break after all. Weiss relaxed into the couch, watching the little cartoon the two sisters were glued to.

It was quiet for a while.

Yang broke the silence.

"Hey, what do you guys think about... Sun?" she asked the two, tentative. They both looked at her, confused at the sudden topic. "Like, you guys think he's alright...?"

Ruby scoffed. "Duh. Sun is so cool! Plus I trust Blake's judgement of him. She seems to think he's great."

Weiss crossed her arms. "Well I think he's unruly and a hooligan. Have you seen how he goes around climbing on things all the time?" she laughed, as Ruby and Yang looked on, mortified. "But I suppose that's to be expected from... one of those people."

All of them failed to notice Blake, standing behind the trio, having quietly exited her room, as she did.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she snapped. All three turned around, startled at her presence.

Weiss narrowed her eyes at Blake, who did the same.

"A Faunus, Blake."

Blake furrowed her brows and shook her head.

"I can't believe this. Faunus are people, too."

"They're savage beasts! Do you know how many assassination attempts they've made against my family? They've even gone after me!"

Blake clenched her fists.

"I'm sorry that happened, Weiss. But Faunus are people and they deserve to be treated the same as anybody else."

Weiss stood up now.

"They are violent beasts who have taken to using violent methods to solve all their problems, even after they've signed a treaty for peace!"

Blake stomped her foot down angrily.

"Maybe we're just tired of being pushed around!"

That gave Weiss pause. Blake's expression immediately changed to a deep shade of horrified. Nobody moved for a while.

"Blake..." Ruby started softly. Blake looked at her, tears welling. She immediately then turned and left the loft, slamming the door shut behind her.

* * *

 **Remember how I said it'd be a twisty little road? More words, more characters, more threads to be connected and tied up. I've really been enjoying writing this thing. I can't say for sure how often this will be updated. I got a job and I've been heading to the gym and trying to improve myself as a person. Rest assured I'll still be writing this though.**


	4. How Schnee Saved Christmas

**Merry not-quite-Christmas, you guys! Enjoy.**

* * *

Weiss was bothered. At the very least she was conflicted

She sighed, stopping typing on her laptop to rub at her temples. The migraine had only grown worse. Last night was... eventful.

It was horrible.

Weiss had made Blake upset, and she had run out of the loft, after her surprise revelation that she actually was a Faunus. And if Weiss had to bet, she was once a part of the White Fang too. Blake had always been vague and shady about her past. Now Weiss knew why.

Yang had run after her, and Weiss had locked herself in her room, stubbornly ignoring Ruby's numerous requests for her to talk about it. Blake didn't come home that night, and neither did Yang. Weiss knew this because she was up all night, deep in thought. Now it was morning, and Weiss lost count of the cups of coffee she'd consumed and somebody was hammering at her skull with a jackhammer.

So Weiss threw herself further into her work, because she was Weiss Schnee, of the Schnee family, and what could be more important to a Schnee than their work? That, at least, she had in common with her father. The time on her laptop read 12 in the afternoon, but it still felt like last night hadn't ended.

Weiss sighed. She was fine. She needed to get this email sent, then to look over the photos from the CFVY set, arrange some meetings-

She took a sip from her coffee cup, only to find it empty. She scowled.

May poked her head in.

"Ms. Schnee, a Ruby Rose here to see you."

Weiss' scowl deepened. She really wasn't in the mood for this. She needed more coffee. And she wouldn't be entirely opposed to it being mixed with some form of very, very strong alcohol.

"Tell her I'm busy," Weiss waved a dismissive hand at her secretary. May nodded, disappearing back to her desk. Not 20 seconds later, the door to her office crashed open, and Ruby stomped in, a tray with coffee in one hand, and a paper bag in another. May appeared behind frantically.

"Ms. Schnee is busy, you're not allowed-"

"Ruby!"

Ruby stomped over to Weiss desk, setting the bag and tray down, a bit more forceful than she normally would. "It's lunch. You're not busy," Ruby said simply, taking a seat. Weiss sighed as May looked on angrily.

"You can go back, May," Weiss said to her secretary, pinching the bridge of her nose. May did so reluctantly, casting glances at the two of them, giving Ruby the stink eye even as she smiled apologetically. Weiss turned her attention to her room mate as she left.

"Why are you here?"

Ruby dutifully ignored Weiss, pulling out sandwiches from the bag and giving her a cup of coffee. Weiss sighed again, rubbing her temple. Ruby made a little 'oh', reaching into her backpack to pull out a little bottle of aspirin, along with a bottle of water. She pushed it over to Weiss, who took two immediately.

"You know why I'm here, Weiss," Ruby said simply, resting her chin in her hand before taking a sip of coffee. Weiss scowled again, putting the bottle of water and aspirin away, returning to her laptop. A hand appeared, and Ruby gently took Weiss' cold hands in her own. Weiss froze immediately, her eyes zeroing in on Ruby. Everything about her was gentle and coaxing. Everything about Ruby made Weiss feel funny. Ruby cared, she always cared about everybody. And Ruby showed it, and she always made a big show of it, case in point, here. Weiss wasn't used to it, even though she appreciated it immensely. But somehow Weiss felt like Ruby extra cared for her. Like Weiss was special. And that was... probably not true. Probably just Weiss projecting.

But that thought remained at the back of her mind on the slow days and quiet nights.

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby.

"Weiss."

Weiss snapped out of her reverie. Ruby was still looking at her, and her hand was still warming up in the younger girl's.

"Talk to me. Please."

Weiss swallowed hard. "Okay."

* * *

It was 40 minutes after Blake had left the apartment, and Yang was in her car, driving her around. Blake was quiet...er than usual. The pair hadn't spoken much, just Yang letting Blake know that she wasn't angry and that they were going somewhere. She hadn't told Blake where. Blake didn't much feel like asking. Rain had started to pour down, a light drizzle, sounding out small 'tap-tap's on the windows. They were persistent, they were somehow comforting, they were absolute and essential. A force of nature, not too different from the girl seated beside her, driving in silence.

"Why aren't you mad?" Blake asked, finally sick of the silence that had overcome the pair like a thick fog. Yang drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, a smile breaking out on her face. The car came to a slow halt at a red light, and she looked over at Blake like she was an idiot. Which she was, probably.

"Are you kidding me?" Yang scoffed. "Faunus or not, you're still my best friend, Blake. Nothing'll change that." Yang placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing slightly. Blake felt a bit warmer. The two fell into silence once more as Blake ruminated more, and Yang continued driving. Finally, they arrived at their destination: a tall apartment building. The building was made of marble, and even in the gloom of late-night rain, it looked way higher-class than either Blake or Yang.

"Where are we?" Blake wrapped her arms around herself, the chill finally getting to her. The car couldn't insulate then completely from the cold December winds. Yang was already wrapping her coat around Blake, ever the caring one.

"I'll explain inside, come on," Yang keyed the car off and exited. She looked like she didn't even feel the cold. It was an apt description, because when Yang came over to the other side, opening the door for Blake before taking her hand, Blake felt herself warming up with her touch. She should have known that Yang burned, hotter than the sun in the middle of July even in the cold winter months. She was a force of nature, after all.

The designers of the building apparently couldn't get enough of marble. Smooth and cold to the touch, it made up the entire interior of the building. Plush velvet carpet covered the floor, and embroiled in gold cursive on one wall was 'Oz Residences'. Yang, hand still in Blake's, led her over to the elevator. They entered, and Yang withdrew a card from her back pocket. It was plain grey, and Yang waved it at the panel, and the elevator dinged and started rising. Yang pocketed the card and smiled slightly at Blake. She squeezed Blake's hand comfortingly.

"I've told you before about my Uncle Qrow, right?"

Blake nodded slightly, recalling Yang having mentioned him before. He was friends with Yang's mother. Her biological mother. Or so Yang had surmised. All she knew was Summer Rose wasn't the woman who gave birth to her, and that the woman who did was missing. Her parents had been reluctant to tell her, and she'd been reluctant to ask.

"Well, when he's not off doing... whatever it is he does, he lives here," Yang pulled the card out again. "He gave me and Ruby a key, and said that we could crash here if we needed to." She looked at Blake with an infinite amount of kindness in her eyes, and Blake was almost floored. "I'd say we need to."

The elevator doors opened with a 'ding' to reveal a large grey marble hallway, similar to the marble in the lobby, except instead of plush velvet carpeting, it was yellow. The hallway held no doors, except the one at the far end. It was lighter grey in colour, except for the single red 'Q' plastered in the middle.

Yang led her down the hall, opening the door with another wave of the card. A small console beside the door lit up with the words 'Welcome, Yang Xiao Long'. Blake felt like she was in some sort of spy movie.

The place was big. A large window gave a sprawling view of the Valean city skyline, and a huge tv was hung up above a metal fireplace, with a grey couch facing it. Bottles and bottles of alcohol were scattered about the place, like a party had taken place the night before. A wine rack hung over in the kitchen, and there was even a bar in the far corner. The man liked his drinks. Yang sighed, already picking up bottles.

"Uncle Qrow?!" she called out. Only silence responded. She sighed again. "Gimme a second, alright?" Yang said to her companion, a stack of bottles already in her arms. Blake nodded, wandering around to inspect the place. It was a total bachelor pad. It was also dusty. It seemed that nobody had been around some parts in quite some time. The study seemed like it had seen very little use. Blake assumed that, with Uncle Qrow's frequent traveling habits, and lavish living style, he was some sort of businessmen. But she didn't know any businessmen to have more alcohol than liquids than weren't alcoholic in their homes. It did bring up the question of what exactly he did for a living.

"So, welcome, I guess?" Yang called out, leaning against the doorway of the study, smiling like nothing was wrong. Blake figured that it would be Yang, if anybody, to brighten up even the darkest aspects of her life. Blake stopped thumbing through Uncle Qrow's collection of novels. He was a big reader, apparently. He had a good amount of noir-mystery novels, about chiseled-jaw, gumshoe detectives in fedoras and trenchcoats solving murders, with his six-shooter as his only companion. Blake figured that if this were the mystery novel, Yang would be the femme fatale, the bombshell beauty, pretty with a pistol, and Blake would be the hard boiled detective with the shady past. Eventually the femme fatale would be the detective's downfall.

As Yang smiled, radiating warmth, Blake thought it was appropriate.

"You want a drink?"

Blake mulled it over for a bit. It had been a long night- hell, the night still wasn't over. She probably deserved a drink. Blake nodded, and Yang went over to the bar. Blake followed behind her.

Quickly, before she could think twice about it, Blake reached up and untied the bow atop her head, exposing her furry ears to the cool air. She shivered, for more reasons than one, as she took a seat at the bar. Yang looked up for pouring her drink, and her eyes shot up to the two furry appendages on top of Blake's head.

Slowly, Yang walked around the bar, and she wrapped Blake up in a hug. The rain eased up a bit, as the two girls took a seat around the fireplace, talking well into the night.

* * *

"A Christmas party."

A Christmas party?

"A Christmas party?"

Neptune nodded.

"A Christmas party!"

His bubbling excitement was something Jaune couldn't really share, for several reasons. The first on the list being that parties really weren't his thing. The second being, like- what the hell.

Ever since yesterday, when Neptune had met Ms. Schnee, he'd been going on and on about her. The first victim was Sun, when he had gotten home. Now it was Jaune's turn. The aqua-haired model had found him in the break room, organizing folders of shoots by date. The sprawl of photos and papers and stacks of boxes hadn't quite indicated to Neptune how busy he was.

"Seems kind of... on the nose," Jaune shrugged, straightening another stack of papers.

"That's the beauty of it, man!" he threw his hands up. "Snow Modeling Agency- everybody expects it to be too cheesy to have a Christmas party, so they'll be really surprised when we actually do have one!"

Jaune blinked.

"We'll just say we're doing it, like, ironically. Everybody loves that!"

Jaune shook his head good-naturedly. If nothing else, Neptune was crafty. Well, more like kind of crazy. But the good kind.

"This is just a big ploy to be able to see Ms. Schnee again isn't it?"

Neptune paused. "Well... _yeah_. But also everything else. Plus, it's Christmas!" Neptune ended his pitch with two big thumbs up.

"Yeah, no. Yeah. No, yeah, you're on your own," Jaune carefully put a stack of folders into a box, his mind already focusing on the task on hand.

Neptune chuckled. "Fine. But this thing is gonna happen, mark my words!"

Jaune somehow didn't doubt that.

A few hours later, a company wide memo went out- there was going to be a company Christmas party at the week's end. Jaune had to give him credit. Neptune was a fast worker.

Later, when Weiss found the memo she couldn't recall sending out, she chalked it up to her lack of sleep.

* * *

Again, it was late at night when Weiss returned home to the loft. The silence that reigned over it seemed heavy to Weiss. Or maybe that was her sleep-deprived brain trying to say something.

Everybody was in their rooms, leaving Weiss alone outside. She placed her shoes on the rack and deposited her keys into the bowl, ever the immaculately organized girl, even when her mind felt dry and her eyelids were screaming to drop. She placed her purse on the kitchen table, and to her credit, she deliberated a bit before taking the bottle of beer in the fridge. Alcohol. Any amount of alcohol would do.

She twisted the cap off before taking a swig of the cold beverage.

Again, to her credit, she deliberated some more before swiping the six-pack.

She downed two in the span of 20 minutes, sitting silently in the kitchen, her eyes locked on Blake's door the whole time. She took the rest to her room.

Weiss paused in front of Blake's room, bloodshot pale blue eyes staring intently at the door, mind trying to reach out into the girl she knew resided within.

Her whispered apology was lost to the air, before she slipped into her room.

* * *

Blake hadn't spoken to Sun since their last date.

She wasn't working, and she didn't open up any of his texts.

She was hesitant to tell him. It didn't really involve him, except it sort of did. It was the topic of him that brought up Weiss' surprise prejudices after all. She decided to wait to tell him.

She knew she had to apologize. Maybe Weiss was the one with the unfair views of Faunus, but Blake had still kept a big secret about herself from the few people who actually cared for her.

She didn't even know if Weiss would still accept being her friend, being as prejudiced against the Faunus as she was. And she hadn't even told her about her... more shady past. It was all one big headache.

People dealt with internal conflicts in different ways. Somebody like Yang would externalize it, with their fists or other body parts and with a large amount of force. Somebody like Weiss would internalize everything. Somebody like Ruby would... well, Ruby would probably just solve everything with simplicity and innocence.

Blake wrote.

She sat at her desk, writing.

It seemed so childish, to write something in a journal like a petulant teenager. But it helped. And it came as little surprise to Blake when she would look at all that she wrote and see that it amounted to little else but 'I'm sorry' in a million different ways. Her written apology wouldn't see the light of day.

* * *

Ladies loved confidence. Or so he was told.

With Pyrrha, Jaune knew she just wanted honest.

So that's what he did, with the courage and willpower he never knew he had.

"Hey, Pyrrha! Did you hear about the company Christmas party? I was thinking, if you weren't busy, you'd want to come with me?"

The cereal box gave no reply. Jaune sighed before spooning more marshmallow flakes into his mouth.

"Hey-hey! P-money, yo- No, that's stupid."

"Yeah, pretty dumb," a new voice offered from the kitchen doorway. Lie Ren went straight to the coffee pot, pouring himself a mug. Jaune's cheeks were dusted light pink. His roommate was a man of few words, which made those words carry a lot of weight. Jaune sighed again.

"What do I say, man?" Jaune lifted the box for Ren to see. "I mean how did you get Nora? You guys make it seem so easy."

Ren sipped his coffee. "Always had her," was his measured response. Jaune sighed again. The cereal box Pyrrha smiled bright, and now that Jaune knew her, he could see the frayed edges in ths photo. The nervous, almost uncomfortable look in her eyes, the slightly bulging vein in her neck and that one little strand of hair that stuck up slightly at the top of her head.

Jaune knew Pyrrha Nikos very well. He just didn't know how to ask her out. The sentence almost made his head spin and gave him a strange sense of vertigo.

Him, Jaune Arc, lanky, clumsy, embarrassing Jaune Arc wanted to ask Pyrrha Nikos, _The_ Pyrrha Nikos, out? It sounded like the setup to a bad joke.

It wasn't even because it was Pyrrha's face on his tv and his cereal box. It wasn't because he saw her 12 second knockout win in the Remnant Olympics. It was because he knew her. Pyrrha Nikos was kind and caring and funny and _ohmygod_ so out of his league it wasn't even funny!

Ren appeared, as he tended to, silently and fully dressed. Ren, as opposed to Jaune, worked at the modeling agency. Like, actually worked. He had an office and a computer and everything. He wore a tie to work.

Jaune got people coffee and occasionally got to adjust the camera focus. It was like a drop of ice cold water to a burning man.

"I'm meeting Nora before work," he buttoned his sleeves properly. "See you later."

Jaune grunted in response, his mouth full up with chewing marshmallow flakes.

Today would be the day, he told himself.

* * *

Today would be the day, she told herself.

Pyrrha idly popped another marshmallow flake into her mouth, looking out the window. The cab was stopped at a traffic light next to a park. Her mind wandered with the sight of a couple sitting comfortably on a bench together.

Jaune.

Jaune!

Jaaaaaaauuunnneeee.

Pyrrha popped another marshmallow flake into her mouth. There was no denying her attraction to him. He was charming, funny, sweet. He was a genuinely good person. And he was the first person in a while to have met her and treated her like a _person_ , to be talked _to_ and not _about_. Jaune honestly didn't care about her name or her face on billboards or... cereal boxes.

And today was the day. She would ask him out on a date. She would. Really.

Just like the other 15 times she said she would.

But this time, though. For real.

Pyrrha paid the cab driver and stepped out, heading into the building. She discarded her hat and sunglasses inside, safe from the prying eyes of the public. In her dressing room was a coffee cup with a sticky note on it.

'have a good day!' it read, with a misshapen heart next to it. Unmistakeably Jaune. It would be unmistakable based purely on the fact that Jaune was the only intern getting people coffee. But also unmistakably Jaune's brand of adorableness.

It cemented her resolve. Today would be the day.

* * *

Sun looked at Blake's contact for the millionth time that day. She hadn't responded to any of his texts, and he began doubting whether she would even show up for work. Sun was concerned, to say the least. Blake was mysterious- like the word 'mystery' had somehow taken form of an adorable woman, gaining sentience- but she would never outright ignore him like this. He gathered that something big had happened to her.

Well, honestly, a million thoughts were running in his head about her.

Maybe she just wanted some space. Maybe she had truly cut him off. Maybe she had found somebody else. Maybe she was murdered and stuffed into the trunk of a serial killer's car.

Or maybe she would walk into the shop, looking like she didn't appreciate the raincloud that had miraculously formed over her head.

"Blake!" Sun perked up, pocketing his phone. His smile died once he saw the way Blake's eyes never quite met his, and her usual quiet amusement was replaced by a more serious, somber look. "Is everything alright? I-I texted you like a million times, I wasn't sure if-"

"I'm okay, Sun," she said quietly. Blake walked up to him slowly, encircling his wrists with her hands. She stopped, deciding how best to proceed. "I've been busy," she sighed quietly.

She led him over to the counter, patiently explaining the whole thing about Weiss- about herself. Sun listened attentively, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sun finally asked once she finished. Blake bit her bottom lip. Now here was the tricky part. Why didn't she tell him? She had no reason not to. And of all people, Sun deserved to know. He was involved after all. And she was involved with him. She should have told him. She really should have.

Only she didn't. Because she decided to ignore him. Blake decided that telling Sun took a backseat to spending time with Yang to figure it all out. Blake swallowed hard.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, and Sun didn't miss the twitch of her ears almost flattening underneath the bow.

Sun hugged her, and Blake wasn't sure which aspect she was truly sorry about.

* * *

Yang slipped her helmet off, keying the engine of the yellow motorcycle off. A quick run of her hand through her hair, and the goldy-locks were back to their carefully planned mess. The sun was quickly setting over the Valean skyline. But the club she'd parked in front of had not yet opened. That actually suited her. She was looking for information. The lack of crowd would just make it easier.

The big man out front was smoking a cigarette, looking disinterested as ever. Yang pocketed her shades and put on a winning smile, walking over to him.

"Hey, big guy," she winked, putting on her most salacious voice. "How about letting me in a bit early huh?" she leaned in close, whispering right into his ear. "I'll make it worth your while~"

The man blushed a bright red, and Yang marvelled at how much easier this was than she thought it would be. Yang took advantage as he flustered to slip past him, winking once more for good measure.

The music was already playing. A loud, bassy beat to get patrons to dance. Yang strode confidently to the bar, taking a seat as the man behind it was distracted with mixing a drink. Short, cropped hair, and a full thick beard. He was the man she was looking for.

"One Strawberry Sunrise, please!" Yang called out cheerily. The man startled, whipping around to look at the sexy blonde woman sitting ever so casually at his bar. The club wasn't open yet...

"Who let you in?" he asked gruffly, crossing his arms gruffly, looking... gruff.

Yang rested her chin on her palms as she smiled and rolled her eyes good- naturedly. "Oh, your bouncer was really nice about it."

Junior scowled at her.

Yang pulled her scroll out of her back pocket, thumbing through to pull up a photo of a raven-haired woman. "Junior, right?"

Junior scowled more.

"Some friends of mine referred me to you. Of course, their referral came under less than pleasant circumstances."

Realization dawned on Junior's face.

Yang nodded, smiling. "Don't worry, Junior. All your toys have been returned to their toyboxes, and you dirty little secrets are safe with me," she winked. "All I want to know is," she showed him the photo. "where is this woman?"

* * *

"Jaune, I wanted to ask you-"

"Pyrrhadoyouwanttogotothechristmaspartywithme?"

Pyrrha blanched. Then she smiled wide.

"Yes, Jaune. I would like that very much,"

Jaune managed to refrain from doing a victory dance on the spot right there.

Neptune's date, meanwhile, probably didn't even know she was going with him. But she'd be there.

Yang and Ruby were invited of course. Blake wouldn't go quietly into that good party, but she'd be there. Sun, too.

The stage was set for a... memorable Christmas. One that could be described in five acts.

* * *

The first act started with a song.

Weiss had made her rounds, and now she was standing uncomfortably at the punch bowl, waiting for Ruby and the rest to arrive. Weiss was nervous. She hadn't spoken to Blake in almost a week at this point. She'd never be home when Weiss was. Weiss wouldn't even know what to say if she ever did catch her.

Now, it would be a guarantee.

Yeah, Weiss was nervous.

Then the damned song came on.

 _I don't want a lot for Christmas,_

Christmas songs. Weiss scowled into her cup.

Then she caught sight of a crimson haired girl in a dark and crimson coloured dress, looking uncomfortable as ever in her heels. Weiss felt her scowl lessen and a smile bloom on her face.

 _All I want for Christmas is~_

"Weiss!" Ruby called out, waving and walking over awkwardly. More of a stilted waddle if anything else. "Hey! You look great!"

Weiss' reaction to that compliment from anybody else would be to smile politely and bow her head. After all, she never did know when somebody was being genuine. In Weiss' high-class world of snooty rich people, words never meant what they were supposed to, and sometimes meant nothing at all.

With Ruby, Weiss knew she was being genuine. Weiss bit the inside of her cheek, a blush running up her neck.

"Thank you Ruby, you don't look so bad yourself."

Ruby scoffed. "Betcha didn't even know I was capable of cleaning up this well. Check it, I'm even wearing lady-stilts and makeup!"

Weiss nodded, amused

"So," Ruby dropped her tone a bit. "Have you talked to Blake yet?"

Weiss' smile dropped a bit. Ruby's smile grew. That smile never usually meant good things for the heiress.

"I have a plan."

* * *

The second act started with a plan.

"Yang, that's ridiculous," Blake deadpanned.

Yang cocked a hip, indignant. "I guarantee you it'll work! It's like proposing in front of a crowd, or poking holes into the condom so he won't ever leave you!"

Both Sun and Blake's faces paled.

"I- You had me for the first part-" Sun coughed.

Yang rolled her eyes. "It was a joke. Obviously," she added a wink, bringing the authenticity of the joke back into question.

Blake narrowed her eyes at her blonde roommate.

Yang counted the seconds in her head.

10, 11-

"Fine. I'll do it."

Yang whooped. Usually it took her like 20 seconds to agree to any of Yang's crazy plans.

Blake sighed. "Get me a drink, please."

* * *

The third act started with alcohol. A lot of alcohol.

Weiss downed her fifth glass of vodka. Things were buzzing quite nicely, and she was starting to slur her words just a little.

"Y'know, when I said maybe a little bit of liquid courage would help, I didn't really mean this," Ruby noted, a hint of nervousness in her voice. Weiss hadn't remembered having an open bar at the party, although to be fair, Weiss didn't remember many specific details of anything by the third glass. She also didn't remember Ruby's dress showing that much cleavage underneath that black mesh. Weiss giggled to herself, and Ruby laughed nervously too.

"Ruby!" Weiss spoke with the enunciation of somebody who was clearly drunk trying to speak like a normal person. "You're showing a lot of décollet- déco-" Weiss hiccoughed. "Boobage tonight! Whossit for? I hope it's meeee~" she sing-songed the last part, laughing into her drink. Ruby laughed along even more nervous. She cleared her throat and excused herself, her face a shade of brilliant red.

Blake, meanwhile, was just as belligerent as Weiss, if not more so.

"You have blonde hair, Sun," Blake teased a lock of it. "Like Yang! Or the Sun!" she smiled. "Same thing."

"Me and Yang?" Sun asked, humouring his drunk girlfriend.

"No, Yang and the sun."

Sun 'ah'd, shutting her up by presenting her with another beer, which she gladly took and chugged.

"So how is Operation: Tipsy Elves going on your end?" Ruby slid up to her sister, watching Blake get drunker with each passing moment.

"I thought it was Operation: Hammer'd Bros?"

Ruby shrugged. Yang rolled her eyes.

"It's going great! Blake's almost at the point where she's touchy drunk- oh there she goes."

True to her word, Blake was now feeling up the chair she was seated in. Sensually rubbing and groping the hard, shiny plastic like it was prom night.

"Alright, just don't get her like... super duper drunk."

"Speak for yourself," Yang scoffed, jerking her head over to where Weiss was, enthusiastically explaining the plot of the newest run of the X-Ray and Vav comics to a very scared looking lanky blonde man. Ruby sighed, already heading over to where her roommate was.

"So it turns out Mogar was- Oh, Ruby!"

Ruby sidled up to the pair, gently placing an arm over Weiss' shoulder and leading her back to her seat.

"Sorry about that!" she called out as they took their seats. Weiss giggled again, reaching up to unwrap Ruby's hand from around her shoulder and instead taking it in her arms and hugging it. Ruby yelped as her left arm was clamped around the vice grip known as Weiss Schnee's drunk hugs.

Then a song came on.

That same damned song.

 _I don't want a lot for Christmas..._

* * *

The fourth act started with that same damned song.

Why the place had a karaoke machine, Weiss would never know. But in that moment, inspiration struck her like never before. Like a man possessed, Weiss released Ruby and bounded/stumbled over to the machine, grabbing the mic. The whole party went silent as the microphone screeched, and everyone turned their attention to the proud Schnee heiress, standing tall and proud and piss drink, giggling into the microphone.

"I am Weiss Schnee, and I am the owner of this company, and I would like to sing you all a song! And you have to let me because I'm Weiss Schnee, and I am the owner of this company- oh. I said that already."

Weiss keyed in the song, that damned stupid catchy Christmas jingle. Ruby looked on in horror and sick fascination. Her plan hadn't entailed this. This was, in fact, going off the rails a bit. Or a lot. But she couldn't stop her or look away. She just looked on at the train wreck that was Weiss Schnee drunk at the karaoke machine.

"I don't want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need," Weiss hit the first notes of the song, her speech slightly slurred, but clearly all her heart was put into this rendition. And Weiss was a good singer. Ruby had personally heard the ridiculous high notes she could hit. In the right time and place, Weiss Schnee could have brought men to their knees and burned cities to the ground and turned empires to dust with her beautiful voice.

Drunk at a Christmas party, Weiss was still plenty impressive. People started whooping and cheering her on, causing her to put more soul into her performance. Off came the off-center ponytail, and Weiss ebony hair was free to whip around and she sang and moved.

Less the train wreck that Ruby expected really.

"All I want for Christmas is-"

Weiss' eyes caught Blake's. She stopped singing, the mic halfway to her lips still.

"Blake."

* * *

The fifth act started with a name.

"Weiss."

"Blake. I'm... sorry."

The crowd went silent.

"I was being rude and prejudiced. I didn't mean to drive you away. I-I couldn't sleep thinking about you."

Weiss never broke eye contact with those golden-brown orbs. Blake got up from her seat, and the crowd parted, a path for her straight to Weiss. Blake's heels click-clacked against the floor as she walked up to Weiss-

and hugged her.

Tears. Everywhere.

"I'm sorry I kept a secret from you," Blake cried.

"I'm sorry too," Weiss cried.

The crowd cheered, as a scene straight out of a movie played in front of them. If a single warm act happened again, Saint Nicholas himself would have come by, a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

As far as Christmases went, this was a pretty good one.


	5. I'm Glad It's You

**Story's not dead, so that's great! I've been so caught up in school, it's really slowed this whole thing down. I'll try my best to update as fast as I can, but the important part is that I won't give up on this little thing, so don't worry.**

 **I hope this has enough feel-good to make up for the season finale. Oof.**

* * *

No matter what Yang did, Blake lingered.

Somewhere in the periphery of her mind, always on the fringes of her thoughts and edge of her vision, almost. The quiet, calm way she carried herself. Her brilliant eyes and dark hair, somewhere almost reachable if only Yang focused hard enough.

This was not like Yang.

But then again, Blake made Yang into whatever she wanted. Putty in her hands, a giggling mess, a ball of warmth.

A mess of emotions. Insecure. Jealous. Tortured.

And it wasn't like Yang. Yang was a woman of action. Being stagnant, being stagnated into a set of emotions made her feel... eugh. Yang wanted to move. Move on. Move away. Move forward. She wanted to move from her feelings. She would never let anything stand in her way, so why did she let Blake do so in her mind?

No. She never let Blake do anything. Blake went ahead and worked her magic on Yang all by herself.

And it wasn't like Yang hadn't tried to do something about it. She had many tricks up her sleeves. Punch something till she was too tired to feel anything anymore. Drink. A lot. Meaningless sex with whichever man or woman had fancied it (never at the loft though). She even tried an actual relationship. That hadn't worked out so well. Nothing she did seemed to do anything. She was still stuck. On it. On Her.

Yang was truly at a loss. It frustrated her to no end. Blake's quick wit, her adorable tendencies, her benevolent personality. All of it made her live in just a constant state of agitation.

Short of straight up confessing her love, Yang was out of options but to hunker down and deal with. Even that was looking more and more appealing every day. At least something would be done about it.

Yeah, no.

Yang got a bottle of water out from the fridge, gulping it down, thirsty from her morning run. Well, her lack-of-sleep addled brain thought it was more of a midnight run, but that tended to happen when you didn't get any sleep. And lack of sleep tended to happen when Blake was on her mind. That, and the sounds she had heard coming from Blake's room last night. It made heat rise to her cheeks and her stomach curl in on herself, in a terrible way. Yang's nails dug into the counter as she tried to will the memories away.

And then Sun came out of her room with a pair of loose boxers on and nothing else. He mumbled a sleepy hello to Yang, a small smile gracing his features as he dragged himself to the bathroom. Yang managed to get out a cordial head nod. Sun was probably too sleepy to notice the way her teeth grit anyway. Yang shouldered the fridge door close a bit harder than she maybe had to, before retreating to her room.

Lovely. Great. Fantastic.

* * *

Weiss wasn't the earliest riser. She used to be. Then a pair of sisters showed her the delights of sleeping in. It involved all six Star Wars movies and a lot of coffee and ice-cream. Weiss had never slept in till noon before that. It was amazing.

Still, old habits die hard. She didn't quite wake up at the crack of dawn, ready to start her lessons and training, but she woke up earlier than anybody else. Unless that somebody was a certain Yang Xiao Long, stomping around and slamming fridges. Weiss caught the edges of long blonde hair as the door to her room shut close. Weiss frowned, stepping out of her room and heading over to the bathroom. That was about the biggest downside of living in the loft. A communal bathroom. There wasn't much Weiss missed about living at Schnee Manor, but her own bathroom was one thing she did miss.

She stretched her back as she entered the bathroom, yawning. She sidestepped a naked Sun-

Wait.

WAIT.

"No. NO," Weiss covered her eyes. "What is this. What-" She shook her head vehemently. "Why are you naked?!" Weiss almost shrieked. Sun panicked and clamped a hand over her mouth. Weiss panicked more, pulling away. "Do not get close to me! Why don't you have any clothes on _putonsomeclothes_!"

Sun sighed, reaching for a towel hung on the wall. "Why does this keep happening to me," he mumbled dejectedly. Weiss didn't even want to know about the other times.

"You can open your eyes now," Sun sighed again. Weiss peeked in-between her fingers, blushing madly. Sun had wrapped a towel around his waist, his tail curled down into it. Weiss put her hand down and glared at him. "Sorry, I was gonna take a shower and I didn't know anyone was-" Sun caught himself. "I'm just gonna- gonna go?" He pointed out the door. Sun walked out briskly. Weiss glared at his retreating form.

Wait a second.

"That was my towel."

* * *

"Penny?"

"Ruby!"

Ruby's small frame was wrapped up in a bear hug to rival Yang's, lifting her off her feet.

"It's good to see you, Ruby!" Penny said when she finally released Ruby, who checked for bruising on her ribs before smiling and punching Penny playfully on her arm.

"I haven't seen you since finals ended! What have you been up to?"

Penny's smile froze, as did the rest of her self. "I have been... with my family," she said tersely, hicupping a bit as she did. Ruby cocked her head at her. The two stood there in an awkward silence that seemed to be almost a trademark of their relationship.

"Okay, well... What are you doing here?" Ruby gestured around. The nearby HEB wasn't somewhere she'd expected to find the daughter of an ex-general turned professor. "I've never seen you around here before."

Penny smiled, looking around and marvelling at the sights and sounds of... a grocery store."My friend brought me here! I said I wanted to experience more of what he did, so he thought he would bring me along while he did some shopping!" she replied, chipper as ever.

"So... Where is your friend?"

Penny looked around in mild surprise. "Oh," she said. "I seem to have lost him."

More awkward silence, as Penny cocked her head, somewhat lost in thought. She looked around a bit. Ruby brushed some lint off her skirt and cleared her throat. Outside of the tenants of her loft, Penny was her closest friend. This was what it was like being friends with Ruby.

"Penny!" a male voice called from behind Ruby. Penny smiled as a man with shoulder-length black hair, swept back and tucked behind his ears, came up to Penny, a blue basket in one hand. "I thought I told you not to wander off," he lightly admonished her, much the same way somebody would scold their puppy for peeing on the carpet.

"Sorry, Mr. Risinger!" Penny replied cheerily, unfazed. She grabbed his arm excitedly then, throwing him slightly off balance. "Mr. Risinger, meet my friend Ruby!"

Mr. Risinger smiled warmly at her. "It's nice to finally meet you Ruby; Penny talks about you a lot."

Ruby blushed a bit at that, smiling and giving him an awkward jumble of 'stopitshutyourstupidfaceohmygosh'.

Mr. Risinger turned to Penny. "And I thought I told you to call me Jon."

Penny smiled, like she had just heard a secret. "Alright... Jon," she giggled like a schoolgirl saying her first curse word. It was honestly adorable.

Jon looked at his watch, frowning slightly. "We should get going now, Penny," he turned to Ruby. "It was nice meeting you."

Penny lifted Ruby up in another bear hug. "I'll see you later, Ruby!"

Ruby waved to the pair as she tried to get the wind back in her lungs.

* * *

"That was... something," Weiss noted, careful to keep her voice even as she approached her younger friend, pushing a cart loaded with groceries. It was later in the day, after the incident with Sun, when Weiss decided to go grocery shopping. Ruby had decided to tag along. Now Weiss was treated to 'Awkward Friendship Theatre' starring Ruby Rose, and a touchy, cheerful orange-haired girl.

Weiss pretended like her constant hugging and touching of Ruby didn't make her insides twist slightly and make her a bit irrationally angry.

Ruby turned around to face Weiss. "Oh, hey! You saw... all that?" Ruby laughed nervously, looking away and scratching the back of her neck. "Yeah, that was- that was Penny. My friend. My friend, Penny."

If 'awkward' could ever be used as a descriptor for the weather, it would be right then. All passersby would have commented on the weather that day being quite awkward. Then stare at their toes silently.

Weiss merely quirked a brow. "I got all we needed," she gestured into the cart with her hand. Ruby perked up, then rushed over to check the contents.

"Aww, there's no Skittles!" Ruby whined, her lower half sticking out of the cart and she buried herself into it, digging through the items. "And where's that bag of cookies? Or the cookie dough? And I think Blake wanted actual dough," Ruby noted. Weiss smacked her hand to her forehead.

"I said, things we _needed_. You don't need cookies. Or cookie dough!" Weiss sighed. Ruby poked her head out from the items in the cart to give Weiss an affronted look.

" _Weiss_ ," Ruby whispered. She somehow slid her whole body into the cart, then stood up on her knees as she inched closer to Weiss. " _Weiss_ ," she said again, starry eyed.

Weiss looked at Ruby quizzically. "What are you doing," she deadpanned, as Ruby got up to Weiss and smushed her cheeks together. Weiss was mildly irritated, but made no move go get away.

" _I need the cookies, Weiss_ ," she smushed harder. " _Give me cookie._ "

Weiss sighed. She removed Ruby's hands from her face, planting them firmly on Ruby's own cheeks, smushing them.

"Bloo bloo bloo," Ruby said something through smushed cheeks. Weiss smiled. Even a Schnee couldn't ignore adorable of this intensity. Certainly not live with it and be as stoic as ever. Weiss rolled her eyes, then let go to push the cart to the confectionary aisle. Ruby whooped in the cart.

They actually did forget Blake wanting some dough.

* * *

Today was Blake's quiet day. The loft was silent and empty- Sun was hanging out with Neptune, Weiss and Ruby were out running errands, and Yang was at the gym. Blake had a cup of tea on her nightstand, and she was going to finish this book. Truth be told, this was how Blake planned every single free day anyway. A good book, and some nice tea. It's just that she had to work around the chaos that was living with Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. She managed fairly well. She could now sense when a pillow would be flung in her direction, and could duck and weave without missing a beat on her book. Sometimes, there were perks in being raised and trained by a group of militant revolutionaries. Most of the time, not really.

Blake settled into her bed. The pillows were propped up just so. The window was open, and a breeze tickled her slightly. The sun gave her ample lighting. Everything was perfect. She thumbed her novel to where she had last dog-eared it. Ever since her visit to Qrow's apartment, she had picked up a few mystery novels. Qrow was a man of good tastes.

She was barely half down the page when the door to the apartment was unlocked, and a certain Yang Xiao Long rushed into her room. Ever since the Christmas party, Blake had taken to not wearing her bow around the house, so her annoyance was very clearly conveyed to Yang, if it wasn't already etched on her face.

"I'm not here!" Yang said in a frantic, hushed tone before slipping into her closet, burying herself deep inside all her clothes.

"What the f-"

"YANG!"

Weiss stomped into the room, her white shirt stained with what looked like egg. She stalked into the room, looking around slowly like a velociraptor. Much like a velociraptor, Weiss opened the door to Blake's closet, finding a cowering Yang with a bra on her head.

Weiss' wrath was unleashed on Yang in full force. Blake had never seen somebody so petite and small beat up somebody twice their volume in sheer muscle. But here she was.

And like that, quiet day was ruined.

Blake put down the book, grabbing her tea and heading into the kitchen. She would have been disappointed, except this was how most of her planned quiet days went.

Blake took a sip of her tea, and it spoke to how used to everything she was when she didn't spit it out at the sight of Ruby Rose stuffing her face with cookies.

"Don't look at me!" she almost hissed, shoving another cookie into her mouth. Blake sighed, before snatching the bag away, much to Ruby's protests. She grabbed a napkin and wiped the chocolate away from Ruby's mouth.

"No more cookies," she said simply. Ruby whimpered, but left the bags of groceries to sulk in her room.

Weiss finally stomped out of the room, the eggs on her practically cooking, and Yang followed suite, nursing her wounds.

"Little lady hits hard," Yang almost whimpered. Blake took a sip of tea, quirking a brow at her.

"No less than you deserve probably."

"Hey, whose side are you on?"

Blake smiled. "Not yours."

Yang gasped dramatically, putting her hand on her chest in her best impression of a shocked housewife in the 40s. "Et tu, Blakeus?"

"What happened anyway?"

Yang shrugged slightly. "Not my fault."

It was totally her fault. Blake heard the shower running as Weiss cleaned the egg off of her. She also heard her quiet vows to murder Yang.

Weiss was scary sometimes.

* * *

Ruby stood in the doorway of Weiss' room, watching her work on her laptop. She never did stop, did she? She was even supposed to take it easy today. It was a part of a promise she had made. May was more than capable of handling the company for a day in her absence.

"So," Ruby stretched the word out, grabbing the Schnee's attention from the email she was reading. "You're not super busy tonight are you?"

Weiss turned to face Ruby, raising an eyebrow in question and glaring at her. Ruby toyed the hem of her skirt, looking decidedly not at Weiss.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well..." Ruby's eyes flickered towards Weiss' for a second. "I- I wanted to... no. Nevermind!"

Ruby rushed out of the room, shutting the door behind her, leaving Weiss thoroughly confused. Well, now she couldn't get back to work. She sighed, shutting her laptop and walking over to Ruby's room. Weiss knocked on the door twice.

"Uh- don't come in!" came Ruby's muffled voice from inside.

"Why not?"

"I'm... naked!"

Weiss froze, her mind now occupied with the mental image of a _naked Ruby_ -

No. Not going there.

She shook out of her slight reverie to knock on the door again. "Ruby," she said. "Let me in," Weiss paused. "Please."

There was no response. Weiss sighed. Fine. If that was how Ruby wanted to be, then she would leave her to it. She was sure she could weasel out and explanation later. Weiss walked away into the kitchen, to find a somber Yang Xiao Long seated at the kitchen counter, her chin resting in the crook of her elbow as she stared at the fridge.

"Is everybody being strange today?" Weiss asked, her hands akimbo. Yang looked at the shorter girl with a tight-lipped smile.

"Hey, Weiss," she said, her voice sounding something like weary. Weiss faltered. What was happening?

"Yang? Are you..."

Yang waved a dismissive hand at Weiss. "It's fine, Weiss. It's just Christmas," Yang sighed, running a hand through her hair, a tic she developed when she was stressed. "Ruby and I- our mom passed away around this time. This time of year's kind of tough. Especially for Ruby."

Yang was looking in Weiss' direction, but she wasn't looking at her. The blonde was miles and miles away. Her glazed over eyes finally refocused on Weiss as she came back to reality. Weiss wouldn't pretend to know how they felt. Her own mother left when she was a baby. Too young to really know her.

"I'm sorry," Weiss interlaced her fingers, looking down. Yang waved another dismissive hand at her, walking over to wrap a one-armed hug around her shoulders.

"It's okay, Weiss," Yang said brightly, squeezing Weiss a bit before retreating into her room. Weiss put up no complaints. She rocked back and forth on her feet for a while before going back to Ruby's room, and knocking. Two knocks, hesitant and slow.

"Ruby," she said, soft and gentle. "Would you like to go out tonight?"

Weiss heard things being shuffled around, before the click of the door unlocking, and Ruby's face illuminated by a single strip of light from the hallway. She could barely see grey eyes, obscured by the hood she'd thrown up over her head.

"Go out?" Ruby asked, like it was ridiculous. Because, was this some sort of trick? "Why?"

Weiss smiled, as gentle as she could be. "We can get some food. Just the two of us. How does that sound?"

Ruby paused. Then she smiled, wide and innocent. "That sounds nice, Weiss."

* * *

"The dorks left, so I guess it's just us," Yang smiled at her raven-haired roommate as she sprawled out on the couch next to her. The top of her head just barely teased Blake's exposed thigh, a few stray hairs tickled it slightly. Blake flipped a page and hummed in response.

"Just us," Yang drawled. "Juuuuuussstttt usssss," she sing-songed. She spread her limbs out and stretched, the back of her hand connecting lightly to Blake's chin. She didn't miss a beat. Yang brought her hand around to the back of her neck and another atop her head.

Now Blake perked up, as a hand snaked fingers up to brush against the fur of her ear.

"Yang," she called out, the slight warble in her voice betraying her calm facade. Yang paused. Blake silently took a deep breath before continuing. "What are you doing?"

Yang retracted her hand. She'd gone too far. She mentally cursed herself. She'd let her feelings gotten the better of her- she'd been impulsive and oh god Blake hates her now doesn't she. Yang retracted her hand like it had touched fire, and her face conveyed similar sentiments. Blake almost moaned at the loss of touch on her ears.

Blake paused. Had Yang crossed a line? She was always this affectionate anyways. Hugs and cuddling and hand-holding was pretty much par for the course. Now Blake's ears were exposed, she supposed it was only natural for Yang to try and feel them. Of course, she was unaware of the intimacy of the gesture in faunus terms. But as it stood, Yang was a pretty important person in Blake's life. No, she decided at that moment, petting her ears wasn't crossing any line. Yang was Yang. And that was that.

Blake smiled at Yang, who had sat up on the far end of the couch, as far away for her as she possibly could. Blake shifted to rest her head on Yang's lap, much to the blonde's surprise. Then she grabbed Yang's hand and led it to rest atop her head, all the while still smiling at Yang, to her even bigger surprise. Then Blake went back to her book, like nothing had happened.

Yang hesitated for a few moments before combing her fingers through Blake's hair, letting the black locks flow like water. After a while, she began to tease the base of one ear. The furry appendage twitched slightly in response, but the owner remained intently focused on the book. So Yang became more adventurous, petting and stroking the two ears in between playing with her hair. Soon she became engrossed in it, and she almost missed how Blake had put her book down and was now staring intensely at her.

Yang stopped, staring back at the beauty on her lap, knowing how thoroughly fucked she was.

Blake stopped, staring at the gorgeous blonde looming over her, not quite knowing what she was doing, but only that it felt right.

They inched ever closer together, as Blake travelled up and Yang leaned down. Eyelids fluttered closed and breaths hitched as the moment reached its peak. Blake could almost feel Yang's warm breath on her lips, and-

 _Knock, knock, knock_.

Both of them froze, eyes slamming open, suddenly very acutely aware of the distance between them, or the lack thereof. Blake scrambled away, bolting upright on the couch and very pointedly looking anywhere but Yang.

"Hey, Blake?" came Sun's voice, muffled from outside the loft. Blake's eyes widened even more, if it were possible.

Yang was a big, strong and scary woman. She was headstrong, and she was confident. Yang Xiao Long did not back down. Yang Xiao Long did not run away.

But yeah, Yang absolutely ran away into her room, locking it shut behind her as she hid under the covers and did her best to muffle her screaming.

Blake answered the door, after taking a moment to get the blush in her cheeks down and running her fingers through her hair, almost trying to rid any stain of Yang from her, as if Sun could sense it.

"Sun," she metered out, measuring her tone of voice very carefully. She smiled, because she was supposed to smile, and she supposed these sorts of things came instinctually when one's brain wasn't currently on fire and melting.

"Hey!" Sun enveloped Blake in a hug, which she returned tersely. Sun pulled away and smiled. "Sorry, are you surprised to see me? I called you a bunch of times, to be fair," he waved his phone at her. She looked towards her room, where her phone lay charging.

"Sorry," she said, giving a tight-lipped smile. "What are you doing here Sun? I thought you were out with Neptune."

Sun shrugged and smiled in that goofy way he knew how to. "He wasn't feeling too good, so he went home to take a breather. I thought I'd come here and see you for a while."

Blake resisted the urge to flatten her ears against her head as the confused feelings of guilt started to seep in from what had- and hadn't happened with Yang. She stored the memory away for later, even as it kept pouring over and bleeding into the forefront of her mind. Blake gave Sun a rueful little smile.

Sun sighed, but smiled all the same. "Bad timing, huh?" He shrugged, and pulled Blake in for a kiss, which made something fierce in her recoil instinctually. She managed to barely surpress it, and kissed him back, chaste and as normal as she ever would.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Blake," Sun turned on his heel, and walked into the hallway stairwell, hands in his pockets in a disarming show of how casual he was.

Blake shut the door with a little click, then leaned her head against it, squeezing her eyes shut tight. The black-haired faunus held her breath.

Then she let out a scream.


	6. Thus Kindly

**Hey guys! It's been a while. Few things:**

 **1) I guess I never really thanked everybody for their support of this little story. It's really great that so many people enjoy it! So really, thank you.**

 **2) I know it's been a month. Sorry for the slow-ass updates. But I wanted to make sure this story was at least up to a certain quality. That, plus school and everything takes time. Sorry. But again, I'll still be working on it, long as people are reading. Deal? Deal.**

 **Okay, so, enjoy!**

* * *

Ruby smiled wide when she bit into her cheese pizza, because she was Ruby. And Ruby did as Ruby does. Weiss forked a piece of lettuce into her mouth as she watched Ruby savour the cheese in her mouth, and around that general area. Weiss tutted, hands automatically grabbing a napkin and wiping Ruby's mouth. The younger girl expressed her gratitude through the mouthful of cheese, but really it came out as something more like 'fhank yoo!'.

Weiss rolled her eyes and speared more food into her mouth in a display of disapproval, only the small quirk of her mouth said otherwise.

Ruby had given her the directions to a pizza place a little ways on the outskirts of town, and Weiss had of course obliged, despite her aversion to artery-clogging greasy food. Ruby had immediately ordered a small cheese pizza, on which she was currently happily munching on. It made Weiss happy to see Ruby so happy, especially considering her previous state. Although if Weiss was being honest, it always made her happy to see Ruby happy.

But Weiss kept that thought down by spearing more of the salad into her mouth, chewing almost exaggeratedly.

The place wasn't really crowded for a saturday night, but Weiss figured that maybe that was the point. Soft hums of singing and the smell of dough emanated from the kitchen, mingled into the low murmur of the restaurant.

"Man, this pizza is great!" Ruby said in between bites. She absently wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and almost wiped it on her jeans before catching Weiss' narrowed eyes. She grabbed a napkin sheepishly as she brought the slice of pizza towards the Schnee heiress. "You want some?"

Weiss quirked a brow.

"Come on," Ruby almost pouted, and Weiss felt her resolve start to crumble already.

Weiss sighed a little bit. "Fine," she said in an embarrassingly quick display of defeat. Who was she kidding anyway? Ruby held out the slice across the table, pulling her hand away slightly when Weiss made to grab for it. Weiss scowled and Ruby stared intently. Weiss sighed for the umpteenth time.

She stood up slightly, leaning over, and took a tiny nibble in the corner of the pizza. The cheese stretched as she pulled away, prompting Ruby to laugh as it ended up around Weiss' mouth. Ruby reached over, wiping the bits of cheese pizza away from Weiss' half-scowl chew with her thumb, before popping it quickly into her own mouth without missing a beat.

Weiss paused. Weiss paused long and hard and she forgot to chew for a while. She felt her face flush a bright red as her eyes fixated itself on Ruby's thumb, still moist from her saliva, at her mouth, all curled up in a bright smile, and the pink little tongue that darted itself out to wet her lips.

"Weiss?"

She started at the mention of her name, her brain slowly pulling a hard reset on her motor skills as she remembered how to chew her food again. Weiss shoved more salad into her mouth and looked decidedly away from Ruby as she fought to keep her blush down.

This did seem to be a running theme when she was around Ruby. It was almost getting frustrating. Scratch that, it had definitely gone above and beyond frustrating. Infuriating. Maddening. Hair-pullingly, teeth-yankingly, throat-chokingly frustrating.

But Weiss somehow kept it going.

Go Team Schnee.

Weiss cleared her throat before speaking. "It's good," she said, her words a bit clipped and her face still a bit pink. Ruby smiled, propping her cheek up on her hand.

"I always loved the pizza here," she said, her tone almost wistful, almost airy. Her eyes glazed over a bit as she stared at the window into the kitchen. The soft hums of noise seemed to almost die away as she spoke, soft and slow and melancholy. "My mom- she used to bring Yang and I here, right after she'd get home from work, when dad was away."

The world seemed to weigh in on Ruby. Her youthful face aged right before Weiss' eyes. "She was great," Ruby said after a pause. "She was the best I could have ever asked for."

The longest pause, before Ruby spoke again, soft and tired. "I miss her."

Weiss fought to keep the lump in her throat contained and to stop the ache in her chest from flaring. Not fully aware, purely based on instinct, Weiss place her hand on top of Ruby's, brushing her fingers against the back of it and pressing a thumb into the inside of her wrist. Ruby looked up, first at her hand, then at Weiss. Neither of them said anything for a while. The world seemed to fade to black around them. Right then and there, in the little pizza joint somewhere in the outskirts of town, there only existed Ruby, and Weiss and their hands connected and the warmth both of them felt, but couldn't fully comprehend.

Then the waiter came over. The world brightened again, and suddenly Ruby wasn't the only thing that existed in front of Weiss, and she found she didn't like that all too much.

Master of tact, he was not.

"Good evening ladies, how's the food?" he asked, bright and happy and entirely too emotional for a man in his 30s working as a waiter at a pizza joint. Weiss almost wanted to stab him with the fork.

"It's great, thanks!" Ruby replied, equally chipper. The waiter nodded, smiling.

"Care for a refill?" he asked even as he started refilling their cups. Weiss sighed a little. The man was just doing his job. She supposed she couldn't fault him for that.

Still though.

Eye. Fork. Squelch. Splat.

The rest of the dinner went well after that, as the both of them finish off their food, chatting amicably. Neither of them noticed how the rest of the patrons in the restaurant had cleared out by then. Not until the same waiter came over, informing them of the time. Weiss noted with some satisfaction how tired he seemed by the end of the day. That would serve him for-

For doing his job.

Weiss shook the thought out of her head, and promised whatever entity was listening that she wasn't always this malicious. Somewhere in her mind, she blamed it on Ruby.

"I guess it's pretty late, huh?" Ruby mused, wrapping her jacket around herself as Weiss did the same.

"I guess it is," Weiss nodded. The pair walked out the place, and paused, looking at each other. Both were waiting for a confirmation. Neither had wanted the night to end just yet. Neither wanted to admit it just right then.

"Weiss," Ruby started, before Weiss could think about opening her mouth. "I want to show you something important."

"Okay," Weiss replied simply. There was a pause, as Ruby looked around the silent, mostly empty streets. Then she took hold of Weiss' hand, and took off in a trot, trailing the helpless Schnee behind her.

Not that Weiss would have put up a fight anyway. She was too distracted with the feel of Ruby's hand in her own.

Street turned into dirt path, as the pair of them kept the pace up all the way. Ruby didn't let go, even as Weiss felt her own hands go clammy. She merely tightened her own grip and flashed a quick smile as she took a glance back at her. The dirt path gave way to grass and trees and the cold winter air that Weiss barely felt until just then. The trail began to incline, and Ruby began to slow as they reached the apex of the hill.

Weiss didn't know when, but at some point, snow began to fall. White motes of powder floated gently down, barely visible by the light of the moon. The trees cleared out at the top of the hill, giving way to a clearing. And at the end, a single white stone slab, seated at the edge of the hill where it just cut off into something like a cliff face.

Ruby finally let go of Weiss' hand. She almost shivered at the loss of warmth. Suddenly, the woods seemed a bit colder than it was before.

Weiss watched as Ruby walked into the clearing, towards the slab. She didn't make a move.

Ruby walked slowly, almost carefully. Her boots crunched against the drops of snow on the ground, and her hands were clenched into a fist. When she finally reached the white slab of stone, she paused before kneeling. Weiss felt like an intruder, looking at Ruby. This was a side of her friend she felt nobody had ever had a chance to see. And here she was, looking in from the outside. Stepping in where she felt like she didn't belong. Weiss began to back up, intending on running out back into the streets.

Then Ruby looked back. Her eyes caught Weiss', and Weiss stopped moving. Without beckoning, Ruby called Weiss towards her. Somehow. Ruby always had a special effect on Weiss like that.

So Weiss did. She walked slowly and quietly towards Ruby.

Ruby shifted over and patted the space next to her. Weiss swallowed hard before kneeling on her knees. She couldn't quite gather the courage to look at the inscription on the stone slab.

"Hey mom," Ruby started. "This is Weiss, the girl I told you about."

Weiss finally dragged her gaze over to the stone slab, to the intricate, familiar design of the rose on it, onto the words beautifully inscribed onto it.

'Thus Kindly I Scatter.'

Weiss smiled slightly. "Hello, Mrs. Rose."

Ruby looked over to Weiss, giggling slightly. "She never liked my friends calling her that," she lingered her gaze back onto the headstone. "Call her Summer."

Weiss smiled sheepishly, flicking her eyes from Ruby to the headstone. "Okay."

The pair sat and talked. The trio sat and talked. The snow fell around them.

* * *

Ruby didn't speak on the walk back, so neither did Weiss. It wasn't an awkward silence, so neither thought to break it. Only when they reached the car did Ruby even think to say something.

"Weiss," she turned to face her friend. "Thank you."

Weiss blinked once, then shook her head "I should be thanking you."

Ruby moved in to hug the older girl, and this time Weiss let it happen. Weiss even hugged her back. Actually, Weiss felt a little rush when she did.

Ruby pulled away slightly, but still kept the close proximity. At this distance, Weiss could notice all the little nuances of her friend. She noticed how Ruby was already slightly taller than her. She noticed the slight smattering of freckles on the younger girl's cheeks, practically the only physical evidence of her relation to her sister. She noticed how her gray eyes looked more silver from her. And she noticed the steely resolve in those eyes.

Weiss held the gaze.

"Ruby," she murmured.

Ruby's gaze flickered down slightly then back up, before she licked her lips, making something inside Weiss jump up a bit. "Yes?"

Weiss was sure she had a reply formulated. A question or something. Or something. But all she could focus on now was how close she was. How absolutely easy it would be to just close the distance-

Of course, Ruby by then had already done it for her.

Weiss' racing mind pulled to a complete halt for a few seconds. All she could see, feel, do, or think about was how Ruby's lips were against her own. Ruby Rose was kissing her.

Then she responded back in kind.

The whole world froze around the both of them. The whole world stopped around the most important moment of Weiss' life. She curled a hand into Ruby's short curls, and felt Ruby's own hand bunch into her ponytail.

After far too long, and way too short, they pulled away.

Ruby stared at Weiss. Weiss stared at Ruby.

Then they both smiled wide.

"Finally," Ruby said breathlessly. And Weiss couldn't help but echo that sentiment.

* * *

It was morning, and Yang had one blissful moment when she was half-awake when she couldn't remember what happened the night before.

Of course it all came crashing back, and Yang again wished she didn't exist anymore.

Not that she wanted to die or anything. She just wished she didn't exist. She wished the moment didn't exist. She wished a meteor had hit the Earth right at that second and erased that moment from reality.

But here she was. Painfully awake and alive and the moment happened. The moment almost happened. The almost moment happened.

Yang groaned into her pillow.

She was afraid to even get out of bed. Outside the door was misery, pain and agony. Outside the door was Blake. Yang didn't quite feel like dealing with that just yet.

 _Knock, knock._

Yang groaned louder, hoping it was a sufficient enough response to get the offending knocker to go away.

"Yang?" Ruby called out, muffled through the door. Yang's groan did not work. Great.

Well, maybe she just wasn't trying hard enough. Yang groaned louder.

"Yang, you're not going to get me to go away by roaring," Ruby said simply, and Yang could even hear the smile in her voice. She cursed herself for being so pitiful while her little sister was bright and chipper as a summer's day in a land of woodland creatures. If she thought hard enough, she could come to the conclusion that Ruby had her life together more than she ever did. But she didn't. Yang merely groaned again.

Ruby sighed. "I'm coming in, okay?"

She didn't wait for an answer before opening the door, in true Rose-Xiao Long household fashion.

Yang faked gasped at her sister. "Ruby!" she said. "What if I was naked in here?"

Ruby shuddered a bit, then gave a small shrug. Yang sighed. A few years ago she would have gotten a way bigger reaction. Oh how time flew. It seemed like only yesterday Ruby was a fresh-faced highschooler, with a bright smile on her face, still not yet beaten down by the rigour of life.

But it wasn't yesterday. Because yesterday, _she almost kissed Blake_.

The thought alone was enough to make Yang want to scream.

"You ever gonna get out of that bed, sis?" Ruby leaned against her door, an eyebrow quirked up. Yang scowled, and promptly threw the blanket over her head.

"No," she said, as stubborn and childish as you please.

"Why...?"

Yang pulled the blanket down and pouted at Ruby, who was now standing at the foot of her bed, a hand on a cocked hip. All she was missing was the scowl, then it would have truly felt like home.

"Yang..." she began, a warning sort of tone in her voice. "What happened?"

Yang laid her head down on the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. "I... I almost kissed Blake," she said, sounding lost.

Ruby immediately threw her hands up.

" _WHAT?_ "

Yang bounded over and clamped a hand over her mouth, shushing her violently.

"MMF?"

"Ruby!" Yang hissed. Ruby pulled Yang's hand away.

"You kissed Blake?!" she hissed back. Yang cringed a bit.

"No!" she put her hands up defensively. "I... almost kissed her."

" _Almost?!_ "

* * *

" _Almost?!_ "

Blake cringed.

"I almost kissed Yang, yes," she sighed.

" _Blake_ ," Weiss asked, shrill. "Are you out of your mind?!"

Blake cringed harder.

"I don't need to remind you that you have a boyfriend, Blake," Weiss stood with her arms akimbo. Blake hung her head.

"No... hecametothehouseyesterday," Blake mumbled. Weiss' eyes widened to dinner plates.

" _What._ "

Blake squeezed her eyes shut.

* * *

" _What._ "

Yang squeezed her eyes shut.

"Sun knocked on the door. He came over. IN THE MIDDLE OF-"

Now it was Ruby's turn to clamp her hand over Yang's mouth.

"MMF!"

" _Oh my god!_ " Ruby squealed, in something like shock and excitement.

"Muuuuuuhhhh," Yang groaned into Ruby's hand.

* * *

Later, Ruby met Weiss in the hallway.

"I have to tell you something crazy!" Ruby grabbed both Weiss shoulders and shook her slightly.

"Blake almost kissed Yang," Weiss said, cutting her- cutting Ruby off. Ruby almost exploded from sheer excitement. She started making a sound somewhere in-between a squeal and a screech. Two important distinctions to note when living with members of the Rose-Xiao Long household. Now it was Weiss' turn to grab her Ruby- Ruby's shoulders, to stop her from shaking.

"Calm down, Ruby," Weiss said, ever the even-handed one.

"But Weiss-"

"We have to figure this out," Weiss said, silencing Ruby with a swift finger to her lips. A finger that Ruby promptly planted a kiss on, causing Weiss to start blushing madly, in turn causing Ruby to giggle. While her guard was down, Ruby took the opportunity to lean forward and steal a kiss.

Ruby didn't think it was possible for somebody to blush that hard.

Ruby also didn't think it was possible for somebody to be that cute. Least of all for it to be Weiss.

She didn't think much about it- a relationship with Weiss that is- before. But ever since the Christmas party, and the events leading up to it, Ruby found herself more and more consumed with thoughts of Weiss. It was what her mind defaulted to, whenever she had a free moment. On the sleepless nights, on the quiet days, all that occupied her mind was Weiss. Ruby swiftly came to the conclusion that she wanted Weiss. She wanted something more with Weiss.

Then came the night on the hill.

Ruby, as happy and chipper as she was, had another side of her she rarely ever showed to anybody. The tenants of the loft were the closest people to her, and only Yang knew the extent of attachment, her grief, her rage, over her mother. Over Summer Rose's life and death. And she brought Weiss right into the fold.

She realized then it was the right choice.

So she made her move. And immediately she knew it was the right move.

So here they were, a blushing Weiss and an absolutely ecstatic Ruby.

"We-" Weiss cleared her throat. "We have to get them talking," she gestured at Blake and Yang's doors. Ruby nodded enthusiastically.

Weiss regained her composure. "Let's get to work."


	7. The Setup

**Hi! I'm back in a semi-timely fashion. I'd consider that a pretty good win. I'm going to do my best to keep this up because you guys are just too precious to let down. Enjoy!**

* * *

No, Blake wasn't avoiding Yang. That would be ridiculous. What? Come on.

Yang was her best friend. Why would she be avoiding Yang? Because they almost kissed? Because her head was in her lap, and her fingers were working magic through her head, and their faces were bare few inches apart a few nights ago?

No, Blake wasn't avoiding Yang.

In fact, Blake had always stayed in her room all day until she was sure she was alone.

Feline habit.

Promise.

"A-hah!" Weiss exclaimed as Blake exited her room, making the faunus jump. "I knew you were hiding in your room until you thought everybody was gone!"

Blake took a moment to slow her heart rate. Weiss was outside her room the whole time? How did she not hear her?

What the fu-

"What the fu-"

Weiss clamped a hand over Blake's mouth, causing Blake to scowl. She didn't want Weiss' gross hand germs on her mouth. Why would anybody do this? Why would _Weiss_ do something like this? She never did this. What was going on?

"Hush. I know you're upset with Yang," Weiss said, her voice full of authority and care. Like the parent she could only wish she had.

Blake scowled harder, then pulled Weiss' hand away from her mouth. "I'm not upset with Yang," she declared, sounding like she was sure of herself even though she knew she wasn't. And if she knew that, it meant Weiss _definitely_ knew it.

"Are you sure about that?" Weiss asked, one delicate brow quirked up. Blake held her gaze for a while before giving up, throwing her hands up and sighing in defeat. Did she mention how sometimes she just wanted to throw Weiss out the window? Because she did. Very much. In fact, Blake took a moment to envision that happening, imagining only a tenth of the satisfaction she would have if she ever plucked up the will to do so.

Only she would never, knowing in all probability Weiss' ghost would haunt her, and be ten times as irritating as alive Weiss.

So she kept her friend alive... for now.

But the window beckoned.

"Blake?" Weiss slightly cocked her head sideways. Blake snapped out of her reverie, to resume her scowling at Weiss, which, thinking about it, wasn't that much of a departure from the norm in the loft. Weiss sighed, shaking her head. "If you want to solve this whole thing-"

"There's nothing to solve," Blake declared again, stubborn as ever. Now it was Weiss' turn to sigh. She shook her head, then stepped in closer to Blake, alarming the both of them. Weiss inched in, arms apart and _hugged Blake._

Weiss.

Initiating hugs.

With Blake.

What.

"What."

"What?"

"...what."

Weiss let Blake go, and what can only be described as _the most_ awkward silence followed. The only way Blake could think of to make the situation less awkward was to start making out with Weiss. Or jumping out the window. Neither option was desirable. This awkward silence made everybody in a three block radius instantly cringe. This was an awkward silence the Aztecs long ago had dreams about, and inscribed onto tablets. The comets foretold the coming of the awkward silence.

And here they were.

Blake cleared her throat.

Weiss cleared her throat.

"You have to talk to Yang," Weiss finally said. Blake had no choice but to nod dumbly, for fear of something like that happening ever again. Weiss cleared her throat again, then looked off over Blake's shoulder like there was something there and walked down into the hallway and straight into her room. Blake stood in stunned silence.

It wasn't the most refined way to get Blake to do what she wanted, but it worked.

* * *

Yang ran. Yang ran so far away.

Ruby waited around the corner, only pretending to smoke a cigarette in her trench coat and fedora. Only the cigarette was pretend, of course. The trench coat and fedora were very real.

She knew the route Yang took on her morning runs, and had sneaked out before her and planted herself in an alleyway, ready to catch her sister.

It was only a matter of time now.

3... 2... 1...

 _Crash!_

Ruby sprang out from behind the corner, grabbing Yang by her midsection and driving them both down to the ground.

"What the fu- Ruby!" a very surprised Yang screamed from her position underneath her younger sister. Ruby grabbed her by the front of her tank top, putting on her nastiest expression. Which wasn't very effective, what with Ruby being the human equivalent to a puppy made out of candy. "What are you doing? Where'd you get the coat and hat? Wait. Is that mine?"

"I'm asking the questions here bub!" Ruby growled. 'Growled'. Yang pushed her laughter down, but couldn't stop the smile on her face.

"You know I can totally flip us over right? Like super easy."

Ruby blanched a bit but continued. "Now you listen here, and you listen good. You're gonna take your tush over to Blake and you're gonna talk to her."

Yang groaned, letting her head hang. "Nooooooo," she pleaded.

"This isn't a negotiation, pal," Ruby snarled. "Go talk to her," she put her normal voice back on. "Please. Before things get worse. She's your best friend."

Yang groaned once more before acceding. "Fine. I'll talk to Blake."

Ruby smiled. "Yes! Thank you."

Yang rolled her eyes, before grabbing the lapels of Ruby's coat and flipping them over, driving Ruby into the ground now. She planted a quick kiss on her sister's forehead before ruffling her hair and getting up.

As she ran off, Ruby got up, put a lollipop in her mouth, and pretended to light it.

 _Another successful venture for Ruby's Investigation Co._

 _But there'd always be another one._

 _Another dame. Another run. Another case._

 _There always was._

* * *

Yang didn't get cold feet. Her feet, much like the rest of her body, was smokin' hot. In a literal sense, and (if you were into that sort of thing) metaphorical sense. So, no, Yang didn't get cold feet. She was totally fine.

At least, that was what she told herself as she peeked out of her room for the nth time, to stare at the room opposite hers. The one with the white door and silver handle. The one that almost certainly held utter ruin for her. The one with the big, bad, scary Blake Belladonna behind it. The same Blake Belladonna who she had almost kissed a few nights ago. The same Blake Belladonna she still wanted to kiss and never stop kissing, only she couldn't because clever little Blake Belladonna had gone and gotten herself a fantastic new boyfriend who cared about her almost as much as she did, and loved her like nobody ever had.

Yang shut the door again, pacing around her room.

Yang shut the blinds, pacing around the room.

Yang bit her nails, pacing around the room.

Yang wanted to kill herself, pacing around the room.

Yang cracked the door open and stared at the opposite room again, and she had this sneaking suspicion that she probably looked as stupid as she felt. Yang shut the door again.

Ruby's words rang in her head.

Talk to Blake, before things got worse.

She was right. Ruby was right. Of course she was right. This was for the best. This was all for the best. Yang, like the mature adult she knew she had the capability to be, would talk to Blake, to clear the air, for the sake of their friendship. It was the right thing to do.

But-

But what if...?

What if Blake refused to speak with her? What if Blake had felt so hurt by the other night, she never wanted to associate with Yang anymore? What if this caused a permanent rift between the two of them? What if this was what broke their friendship down- the fact that Yang liked Blake? What if the fact that she was in love with her best friend caused her to run away?

What if Blake didn't feel the same way?

All these questions ran through her mind. Doubt crept into Yang's mind like poison, and it completely froze her on the spot.

Yang grabbed her helmet and her keys, and bolted out of the loft.

There wouldn't be any rejection if the answer wasn't yes or no.

* * *

Steel. Steely, steel-ish, steel-like resolve. That's what Blake had, as her hand floated inches away from Yang's door, ready to knock at any moment.

Any moment now.

Blake stood outside the door for an indeterminate amount of time (far too long), staring at the door. Why couldn't she knock on the door? It was just Yang. What was she so afraid of? All she had to do was knock. Little movements of her wrist.

But she didn't.

Instead, Blake backed off from the door, grabbed her car keys, and walked straight out of the loft, ignoring (heavily repressing) any thoughts of her being a coward and this amounting to nothing short of pure cowardice.

"Dang it," Ruby snapped her fingers as she saw Blake's form slinking out of the loft, shutting the front door ever-so-quietly, as she was prone to do. "It didn't work," she sighed, both hands on her hips as she stood up from behind the couch. She shook her head in disappointment.

"We have to keep trying," Weiss popped up beside her, looking thoroughly flushed, her hair a disheveled mess, and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "We have to get them to talk one way or another."

Ruby beamed at her partner ( _partner!_ ). "You thinking what I'm thinking, partner?"

Weiss smoothed her skirt out. "Probably not, but tell me anyway."

Ruby snapped her fingers. "Big Christmas party! That way we can force them to get together!"

Weiss narrowed her eyes at the younger girl. "Talk to each other, you mean."

"Huh? Yeah, yeah- that."

Weiss shook her head, sighing. Even when she was in love with her, she couldn't stop herself from being exasperated. Not when it came to her. Especially her. "We already tried a Christmas Party, remember?" She lowered her voice a bit and looked at a particularly interesting brown stain on the carpet. "I got drunk and sang karaoke," she mumbled, much to Ruby's eternal pleasure.

"You did do that," Ruby giggled, only to be swiftly silenced by a cold glare from the Schnee. Ruby stopped giggling and cleared her throat. "So, how are we going to do this?"

Weiss pondered for the briefest of moments. She was a Schnee after all, and Schnees did things the way they had to to get what they wanted. So Weiss would, even if she had to pull out every weapon in her (admittedly very, very large) arsenal. "I have just the thing," she said pleasantly, smiling a devious little smile that made something inside Ruby jump very suddenly.

"Okay, but kissing first, right?" Ruby asked, and without prompting smashed her lips against Weiss'. It was alright. Weiss was just about to suggest the exact same thing.

* * *

Christmas was a weird time for Jaune.

Okay, scratch that. _This_ Christmas was a really, really weird time for Jaune. Weird in both good and bad ways.

It started at the Christmas party.

That was weird because, and he still delighted to even think about it, he went with Pyrrha as his date. That was the very good weird.

Then it turned weird-weird, because a certain owner of a certain company he was working for (Weiss, it was Weiss) started ranting to him about the second season of X-Ray and Vav, which he hadn't started watching yet, so it was thoroughly spoiled for him.

Then it turned weirder-than-weird when the same Weiss Schnee went up on stage to sing karaoke and ended up having a very touching, very sappy, (and Jaune thought a bit romantic) apology-cum-cry-session with a black-haired girl.

Then it turned into a really, really good weird when he went home with Pyrrha. Then it didn't turn weird at all, and it turned really, really, good. _Really_ good.

But every day after that was weird because he couldn't believe how smoothly his life was going. Okay, he was still the little bitch-boy (intern) for everybody at the company, but more often than not, he actually got to do meaningful work. Work on cameras, edits; hell, he even got to give an editor his opinion on a recent shoot they did with CFVY. Honestly, it made being the little baby-bottom-of-the-totem-pole-bitch (intern) seem not as bad. And it was all especially good because he had Pyrrha.

Oh my god, he had Pyrrha. Jaune squealed a bit just thinking about it.

Pyrrha, the drop-dead-gorgeous model/athelete/cereal box. That one. He was dating that one. Not just the athletic cereal box model- the real Pyrrha. The one with the kind heart, the guilty pleasures, the one with the snorting laughter and the amazing dance moves. The one that he couldn't believe existed. He was dating that one. He, Jaune Arc, _Jaune Arc_ , was dating Pyrrha Nikos?! Get out of town! Shut the front door! Eat your hat! Every other dumb expression that Jaune couldn't think of right now because he was so happy.

"What are you smiling about?" Ren asked as he looked up from his scroll, a sip of coffee already halfway to his mouth.

Jaune shrugged. "Thinking about stuff."

Ren nodded. "Pyrrha," he said. Jaune couldn't stop the flush from creeping onto his face. Ren smiles. "It's alright. I felt that way about Nora, too."

Jaune cocked his head to the side. "Felt?" he asked.

Ren considered for a moment, then the faintest tinge of pink graces his features, along with the smallest of smiles. "Still do."

"D'awww," Jaune said teasingly. Ren gave him a measured look, then shrugged, returning to his scroll, and returning breakfast to it's sanctity of silence.

Silence that he broke almost immediately.

"I'm going to ask her to marry me," Ren said simply, like, duh. Jaune took the news in stride for all of two seconds before choking on his breakfast cereal. Ren looked on in mild concern, still sipping his coffee. Once Jaune had recovered and cleared his airway, he spoke.

"Th-that's great!" Jaune squealed. Jaune cleared his throat once more. "I mean, it was obviously coming," he said in a way that made him seem, rightfully so, like he was blindsided completely by the news. "But congratulations, Ren."

Ren nodded. "Thank you. I just need to figure out how to do it."

Jaune thought for a moment, then came to the realization of Ren's nigh-insurmountable task. How would he contain Nora when she found out? Dear god, she would just explode! This task wasn't just about finding the right moment, it was about safety. Barriers and blockades would have to be put up. Shelters and ear-plugs would have to be given out to everybody in a three-block radius.

"How long have you been trying to ask her?"Jaune asked.

Ren gave him a hard stare. "A year and a half," he replied, very serious. Jaune didn't doubt the validity of his claims. He wouldn't have the faintest idea of where to begin with Nora when talking to her, let alone trying to propose to her. Ren pulled up some schematics on his scroll. "So far, I've come up with ear-muffs, an abandoned building, and an evacuation notice in a three-block radius."

Jaune nodded solemnly. "Set up shelters for your friends," he suggested. Ren nodded thoughtfully, considering it a little bit before typing it in.

A little while after breakfast, after Jaune had mournfully eaten, and subsequently thrown away the last of his Pumpkin Pete's, his scroll dinged with a message. Pyrrha's face lit up his screen, amongst other things. Jaune snatched it up.

 _Hi! Are you free after work?_

Jaune smiled wide.

 _I am now._

Then he frowned.

 _I mean, actually I had nothing going on. I didn't cancel on anybody or anything._

He sighed in relief, putting down his scroll. Then he snatched it up again, typing hurriedly.

 _Not to say that I wouldn't normally cancel on anybody for you. I totally would! Absolutely. In a heartbeat. But I didn't. In this case. Because I had no plans._

It showed that Pyrrha was reading all his messages. She just wasn't responding.

 _Um_

Shit.

A few more beats passed by before Pyrrha replied.

 _I'll see you later._

Another beat.

 _You dork._

* * *

"How is it," Neptune asked in between stuffing his mouth with noodles. "That you have more luck with ladies than I do?"

Sun quirked an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Neptune pointed an accusatory chopstick at his best friend. "You know what I'm talking about."

"No Neptune, I honestly don't."

"You," he jabbed the chopstick wildly. "And Blake. I mean, you managed to snag yourself a really hot, mysterious, cool girl, who's really hot. Meanwhile I," he jabbed the offending chopstick towards his chest. "Am woefully single and very, very alone," he sank a bit in his seat. "So very alone."

Sun rolled his eyes at his blue-haired companion. "You're a model. You go home with a new girl every other night."

Out came the chopsticks again. "First of all, my job has no relation whatsoever to the ladies I bring home. Second of all, I'm well aware of all the game I got goin' on, bay-bee," he curled a bicep and kissed it. "But I don't have a girl like Blake," he paused. "Not _like_ Blake. Like- y'know what I mean," he rolled his eyes. "Third of all, how did you land a girl like her, and I somehow haven't?"

Sun smirked. "Guess you don't have as much game as you thought, _bay-bee_ ," he said, curling his own bicep (which was, and they already verified this even though Neptune would adamantly refute it, 2 centimeters bigger in circumference than Neptune's) and kissing it.

Neptune scowled.

Sun grinned in his own little self-congratulatory way that Neptune hated oh-so-much. "So there's this thing Weiss invited me to," Sun began.

"Weiss? What thing?"

"Um," Sun pulled his scroll out, covering it with his hand to protect it from the early morning glare. "It's a 'Schnee Initiated Gathering in Loft 4B'. Roughly translated, I think it means a party."

Neptune's eyes lit up. "A party?!"

Sun shrugged. "Well, I'm inferring from all the Schneese I speak, which I'll admit isn't that much-"

"A party?!"

"Yes Neptune, we've already established-"

"A party?!"

Sun paused. "Oh, right. Because of your thing with the Weiss and- right. Yeah. A party."

" _A party?!_ "


	8. The Drop

**You're god damn right kiddos, I'm back! This chapter and the last one were originally meant to be one whole chapter, but I split it up because I thought it'd flow better. Don't expect too much more of these quick updates though, sorry. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

"You did what now?" Ruby tilted her head to one side. Weiss maintained her proud stance.

"I sent some invitations," she said again, simply.

"Invitations," Ruby repeated. "For what?"

"A gathering at our house."

"A what at our what now?"

Weiss tutted, placing her hands akimbo. "A gathering at our house," she repeated a bit more forcefully.

Ruby could only freeze in place, the most quizzical of expressions on her face. "Why? To who? Our house? Why?"

Weiss sighed. "To get Blake and Yang into the same place at the same time, of course," she listed off of her first finger. She raised her second finger. "To _whom_ -some mutual friends of ours, not too many people," she gently raised Ruby's lower jaw back in place, closing her mouth. "At our loft. Tonight," she finished with an air of triumph. "Which is why I need your help to buy some supplies for the gathering."

Ruby laughed a bit. "You've got to stop calling it a gathering."

Weiss blushed a little bit. "Regardless," she said with an air of defensiveness. Ruby laughed a bit more, leaning in to plant a chaste kiss on her lips.

"You're sure about this?" Ruby asked.

Weiss nodded, as sure as she ever was. "I have a plan," she said simply. She whipped her scroll out, pulling up the notepad. A list of things had been written on it, in true Schnee fashion, she couldn't even have fun without making a list out of it. Weiss looked over to Ruby, and with a small smile, the plan was set into motion.

* * *

"Y'know Blondie, the more employees you hurt, the less people there'll be to serve you," Junior offered sarcastically, polishing up a glass behind the counter. It was almost opening time, and of course, who else but Yang Xiao Long was seated at his bar, and two of his bouncers were face down on the floor with pain that almost they would almost certainly feel in the morning. Junior motioned for his other workers to clean the two up, before turning to look at the stony-faced, blonde vixen seated with a drink in her hand. A drink that she was finishing far too quickly. "Hm," he intoned. Yang flickered her eyes up to look at Junior, hoping her expression conveyed just how much she didn't want to deal with any bullshit.

Junior shrugged slightly, choosing instead to fill her glass back up. Yang gave an almost imperceptible nod of approval. Junior watched her nurse her drink this time, taking solace in the fact that at least she was here before opening. When the club was packed (and it was packed very often, thank you very much), he didn't have many doubts that any sleazy guy would try their luck with her, and he had even less doubts that that would end in anything short of a very thorough ass kicking.

"But I'm kind of impressed this time," Junior set the glass down, placing both hands on the bar top. "Didn't realize you were that tough," he said, smiling a little bit. Yang looked at him, an indecipherable expression on her face. "What do you need this time?" he asked. Yang blinked.

"Something stronger," she said, something like lethargy lacing her voice. Junior chuckled a bit.

"I don't mean to be a cliche," he started, even as he was shuffling under the bar. "But I don't think you'll find the answers you're looking for at the bottom of your glass," he chuckled again lightly, pulling out a clear bottle and looking it over. "And don't take this as us being friends or anything," Junior jabbed a finger in her direction. "I'm honestly afraid of you, and I care about my club too much- everything is made of glass, okay? It's easy to break. But whatever your problem is, I don't think drinking is your solution. Especially not getting piss-drunk. _Especially_ not here."

Yang rolled her eyes, and made to snatch the bottle out of Junior's hands. He pulled it away, and gave her a hard look. She returned it twofold. "Junior," she said, her voice betraying no emotion. "Give me the bottle," she hissed.

Junior opened his mouth to say something when her scroll buzzed. Yang gave him a cold stare before pulling the device out of her pocket. Her eyes widened, before she pocketed it and bolted out up the steps, taking two at a time, and out of the club, brushing past anybody in her way. Junior stood in silence for a while, before shrugging. He put the bottle back under the counter, figuring it was best to not look any sort of blonde-be-gone gift horse in the mouth. It was almost opening time anyway. He had more important things to worry about. Ties to crime syndicate or not, Junior ran a damn good club.

* * *

Blake briefly wished it was raining. She loved the sound of rain. It provided the perfect white-noise ambiance for reading. Of course, in this case, she wished for rain for some sort of noise to drown out her thoughts. They were loud and obnoxious and intrusive and she absolutely could not focus on the book. Blake sighed and put the book down, crossing her arms petulantly and looking out the window of the library.

The library. Her sanctuary. Her own little slice of heaven. And she couldn't even enjoy it.

Fuck.

The sun was just beginning to set, and Blake was very much not looking forward to going home, especially when there was a possibility of bumping into Yang. She tried again to repress all thoughts of Yang, all thoughts relating to Yang, all words that might rhyme with Yang, and everything that might possibly be associated with the name Yang.

Only she found everything made her mind jump to the thought of Yang, with her hair wild like the bushes outside, with her personality as bright as the sun, with her eyes purple like the dusting of the sky. Yang, Yang, Yang. Blake pouted, not unlike a child being forced to do something they didn't want to, like brush their teeth or eat their vegetables or talk to their best friend about the possibility (okay, probability. Or inevitability. _Okay, absolute certainty_ ) that they were in love with them.

The sky was growing darker. The purple was drifting gently into inky blackness, and the light of the sun was dimming. Blake swallowed hard.

Of course, then her thoughts were interrupted from their worrying about Yang to a completely different type of worry when Ruby messaged her.

 _Need you at the loft ASAP._

Blake bolted upright, grabbing her coat and rushing out of the library.

* * *

Oh fuck, Yang thought.

Oh fuck, Blake screamed internally.

Oh fuck, the Universe gasped.

"Oh-"

"Oh fu-"

The door to the loft opened, and none other than Ruby Rose's head popped out. "Oh!" she smiled. "Hey guys, come on," she motioned for the both of them to enter with a cock of her head. Yang gladly and very very forcefully yanked the door open and bolted in, leaving Ruby face down on the floor and leaving Blake with a mixed sense of relief and an even more panic.

Quickly, before she could even think about bolting, Ruby grabbed her (with more strength than she expected) and yanked her into the loft, shutting the door behind her. Blake looked at Ruby with wide, fearful eyes, to which Ruby responded with narrowed, determined eyes.

"Ruby," she hissed. "What is this?"

Ruby broke out into a wide grin. "A gathering!" she giggled.

A gathering?

It was only then Blake noticed the people walking scattered around the loft, drinks in hand. She looked back at Ruby, wide eyed. "What?" she asked, ever the eloquent one.

Cheers and whoops were heard from behind her as somebody (Weiss) found (brought out) a bottle of vodka, just in time (it was planned, very very meticulously). "Who wants to play truth or dare?!" Weiss slurred out a little bit, in a most un-Weiss manner. It had begun. Drunk Weiss was back.

* * *

"What the hell is this?" Yang hissed, shaking the Schnee heiress, who giggled ( _giggled_!) in response. "Weiss, are you-" she waved a hand in front of Weiss. "Are you drunk right now?"

"Nope," she said, popping her 'p', and smiling.

Yang sighed. "As much as that entertains me," she shook her head. "Dammit, this is not cool!"

Drunk Weiss slipped out of Yang's grasped, bent down underneath the kitchen counter, and produced from it a clear bottle of vodka. She held it up in triumph as the rest of the loft whooped and cheered. "Who wants to play truth or dare?!"

* * *

Jaune hadn't expected this.

To be fair, Jaune hadn't expected half his life going this way.

That is, to say, he didn't expect to be 21, sitting in a circle with 7 other people, drunk off their asses, playing truth or dare like they were 16 year olds. And he didn't expect one of those people to be his boss, or the other to be Lie Ren. Jaune took another sip of his beer anyway, because his life had already officially gone off the rails anyway, so fuck it. Jaune looked across at Pyrrha, who was already flushed and giggly, and he briefly wondered how everybody had gotten so shit-faced already.

The bottle spun, and spun and spun, and it finally landed on none other than himself. Everybody cheered and looked at him. Jaune laughed nervously. "Truth," he said.

Nora, curled her lips into a tight smile, hooking a finger into her chin as she 'hm'd for dramatic effect. Jaune smiled nervously.

"What," she began. "Is the most embarrassing moment of your life?" she asked, leaning in on her hands and beaming, getting a little too close, like she always did, before pulling back and giggling.

"Oh," Jaune wheezed a nervous little laugh, because everything he did was nervously, because he was nearly not drunk enough. He looked at his bottle of beer, and quickly took another sip, intending to fix this little problem of his. "Um, the first time I ever met Pyrrha," he darted his eyes towards the red-haired girl, whose hands flew over her mouth, in an attempt to suppress and oncoming fit of giggles. Jaune laughed anyway, a little less nervous and a little more drunk at the sight of her smile.

"I, uh only just realized right then she was on the cover of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes, then I tripped and fell and made a complete ass out of myself," he said, to the mild (very mild) amusement of the others. "And now she's dating me so, I guess it wasn't all bad, huh?"

The group 'aww'd, and Jaune reached out to spin the bottle.

* * *

Blake was not nearly drunk enough for the bottle to land on her. She took another quick shot, screwing her face up at the unpleasant taste. "Dare," she choked out, pouring herself another shot.

"Okay, um," Jaune looked around at the group, brows knitted in thought. "Point out," he clasped his hands in front of his mouth like a wise old man about to impart something life-changing. In a way, he was, kind of. "The most beautiful person in this room."

Blake froze. The room stilled. The group looked at her, waiting. Her eyes didn't dare flicker to where she knew Yang sat, cross legged and beer in hand. She could feel her, radiating like she was the embodiment of warmth in the middle of winter. She could feel Yang's presence like a magnet, and everything in her body willed her to turn and stare at Yang and whatever would happen be damned, at least she got to look at her again. But her mind, stronger than all of her combined, stopped her. Blake swallowed thick, before looking down at her shot. She shook her head, set it down, and finally, finally decided to let go. All the pressure inside her let up as she turned to face Yang.

She couldn't describe how it felt, to have Yang staring back at her, those lilac eyes of hers conveying more meaning than she ever meant it to. She stared back, and for the briefest of seconds, she felt light, she felt happy, she felt like everything was going to be okay, because how could it not be with Yang?

Three knocks on the door, and she felt her heart almost stop. "Come in!" Ruby sing-songed, and the door opened to the tall blonde man she was supposed to be in love with, and his blue-haired companion. She felt Yang's smile dissipate, and felt a little colder, like all the hot water in the shower had run out. Like the sun had suddenly disappeared.

"Hey, guys!" Sun called out as the pair entered, and the group accommodated the circled to include the two. Sun took a seat next to Blake, kissing her on the cheek, and Neptune decided to snuggle up to Weiss, much to Ruby's chagrin.

"What're we doing?" Neptune asked.

"Spin the bottle," Blake quickly answered, reaching out to give the bottle a quick spin. The moment had gone, and she was quick to make sure everybody would move on. She didn't dare look at Yang. Not again. Not anymore. The bottle landed on Pyrrha. Blake's already preoccupied mind came up with nothing, and she stammered for a while, before Ruby swooped in to save her.

"Dance!"

* * *

Yang drank more, because she needed it. For a moment, she wondered if she should save some for the morning, because she had already determined she wasn't going to ever sober up as long as Blake was around. Not that she ever felt sober when she was around Blake.

Yang drank more, finishing the rest of her beer.

The bottle spun, and spun, and spun. And it landed on her, just as she cracked open another one. "Dare," she said before taking a long swig.

Pyrrha looked at her dead in her eyes and said, "Kiss Blake."

She froze. Blake froze. Ruby and Weiss froze.

Fuck.

The group 'ooh'd like a group of drunk teenagers, which to be fair, they weren't very far off. Yang's eyes crawled over to where Blake sat, next to Sun. She clenched her teeth and curled her free hand into a fist.

"Um," she started, clearing her throat. "Um, no." she shook her head.

"Aww, come on!" Nora yelled, spilling some of her drink onto the hardwood. "Do it!"

Soon, the whole group had begun chanting 'Do it', and Yang swore she would kick each and every one of their asses in the morning, when her limbs didn't feel so heavy and her heart didn't threaten to burst.

"No, nononono," Yang scrambled, but Nora's vice grip around her didn't falter. Pyrrha grabbed Blake, and in they both went into the closet. The door shut behind them with a quick slam, and a small 'click' sealed their fate inside the tiny room. Yang desperately looked anywhere but Blake, slamming on the door, and yelling.

"They're not going to let us out," Blake said, after a few minutes of silence. Yang stopped hitting the door, giving a long sigh.

"Blake," she said, soft and careful. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, too," she replied, just as soft. Yang finally turned to look at her, and the sparse lighting helped a bit, because she thought she might explode if she saw her properly. Blake looked tired.

"What did we do?" she asked. Yang slid down onto the floor, and Blake mirrored her. In the small closet, they couldn't help but have their knees touch. Both of them gave up on fighting it.

"I don't know."

"What are we going to do now?"

Blake paused. "They want us to kiss."

Yang paused. "So what are we going to do?"

Both of them sat in silence. Yang wanted nothing more than to grab Blake and kiss her. To love her until she couldn't anymore. Yang wanted a happily ever after with Blake, but things were just so confused. She had Sun, and she knew he loved her, and as much as she wanted to, she couldn't be this selfish to him, to break him this way. Yang wanted Blake more than anything else in the world, only she knew she couldn't have her.

"Do you love him?" she asked. Blake looked up at her.

"Sun?"

"Blake," Yang said, weariness colouring her voice. Blake smiled, tight-lipped, but didn't answer.

"He loves you."

"I know."

Silence again.

"I love you," Blake said, her voice starting to waver a bit.

"I love you, too," Yang whispered.

Blake inched in closer. "Kiss me," she breathed. Yang felt it more than she heard it.

"Okay."

The moment Blake's lips met hers, Yang felt lighter. Happier. She felt her heart skip a million beats and she experienced fireworks. It was everything she ever wanted and needed and Blake was right there and her hands were in at the base of her neck and another at her hip and Yang fisted a hand in Blake's hair, never wanting this moment to end, because at the back of her mind was still worry. She knew this was not happily ever after. Just a happy moment in the middle of a really bad time. Yang cupped Blake's face, and she wiped away the tears that fell, running down her cheek. The moment they pulled away, Yang felt her heart break. She wiped away Blake's tears, leaning her head against the other girl's. Yang breathed in her scent, cool and comforting like the night air, and committed it to memory forever and ever.

After an eternity, after only a few seconds, after the whole of Yang's life was lived out in the space between moments, safe in Blake's arms, Blake spoke. "I think we're going to have to just be secretly in love with each other and leave it at that, Yang."

"Okay," Yang said, even though every fibre of her being cried out in something like what she thought was anguish. "Okay, Blake."


	9. The Fall

**Hey! I'm back! Enjoy this new chapter, I promise I'll try to get another out as quick as life will let me. Thanks lovelies!**

* * *

Weiss knew she seemed drunker than she actually was (an intentional act, meant to help persuade Yang and Blake to participate, and clearly it worked), but she wondered why Neptune thought it an appropriate time to start hitting on her. Well, okay, any time would be the wrong time to hit on her, what with her on the wrong side of the fence and also already otherwise preoccupied. Quickly, she glanced at Ruby, and she saw her eye Neptune up a bit, furrowing her eyebrows a bit, which Weiss found absolutely adorable, not that she would voice it out.

"So, how you doin' tonight, Snow Angel?" Neptune, his voice coated in sugar and butter and the softest velvet, asked Weiss, his eyelids half hooded like the most seductive seductress in all the lands. Truly, he was going for broke. Weiss stared at him, a loopy little smile on her face, hoping he would just somehow go away.

"I'm fine, thank you," she replied, her speech a bit more slurred than it was a second ago.

"Aite, aite, coo', coo'," Neptune took a sip of his beer, his other hand stuffed oh-so-very-casually in his jacket pocket.

The two sat in silence for a while. Blissful, amazing silence that Neptune sought fit to break.

"You look really pretty tonight," he said. Weiss smiled a little again, catching Ruby's eye.

"Thank you," she bowed her head slightly, returning her attention back immediately to the closet door, wondering what exactly was happening.

"So are you like doing anyth-"

"Dare!" Ruby called out triumphantly as the spinning bottle came to a rest on her, even though nobody had spun it, and everybody was still waiting for Blake and Yang to complete their dare. Everybody looked at her with blank stares. She wasn't even drunk. "Since Blake's in there I dare myself to..." she cocked a hip and placed a finger on her chin in mock-thought. "To kiss Weiss!"

Everybody looked at Weiss, who was at this point wide-eyed and very, very confused. Without a moment's hesitation, Ruby launched herself at Weiss, wrapping her arms around the older girl and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. Weiss blushed uncontrollably and the group cheered confusedly.

"Yay?" Nora went, clapping her hands. Ruby giggled, disentangling herself from Weiss and spinning the bottle, and if Weiss had blinked she would have missed the slightly cocky glare she gave to Neptune, and then it finally registered in Weiss' mind like a cube she finally got into the square shaped hole.

Oh. Ruby was jealous.

 _Oh. Ruby was jealous._

And at the thought, Weiss blushed again, going absolutely crimson this time. Ruby smiled ever-so-innocently at her. Neptune drank his beer, looking directly away, and around the spaces where Ruby and Weiss were.

The bottle landed on Ren.

"Truth," he said, like it was a solemn confession, which, he wasn't wrong about.

Weiss was also 90% sure Ruby had never met Ren or Nora before. Truth be told, she invited them only because Ren was her best worker, and she knew how attached he was with Nora, one of her most... eccentric workers, and she needed to fill out more people for the gathering-cum-Blake and Yang's happy reunion episode.

"Tell us... how much you like your girlfriend!" Ruby clapped.

Ren nodded, betraying no hint of emotion. He stilled for a few moments, looking like he was composing his thoughts. He looked at Nora's expectant, beaming face, then at the rest of the room, and his hand twitched towards the little box stuffed in his pocket. Ren looked at Nora again, and smiled the barest of smiles.

"I like her a lot. I love her," he admitted quietly. And in a momentous leap of faith, throwing all sorts of caution to the wind, he reached inside his pocket anyway, fingering the little black box in there. "Nora?" he asked, and if Nora wasn't already paying attention, she was now.

"Ren?"

Ren slipped the box out of his pocket and into his closed fist. Ren bit his lower lip slightly, and dully Weiss registered it as the most amount of emotion she'd ever seen the man give away. He held the box out, opening the velvet case to reveal the rose-pink band inside, and Nora thought it was the prettiest thing she'd ever seen. The room gasped collectively.

"Nora, will you-"

" _Yes!_ " Nora shrieked, and all glassware within a two mile radius cringed, feeling their structure start to weaken. " _Yes, yes, yes!_ " And in one swift motion, she stood up, wrapping Ren up in a bear hug to rival bear hugs, and twirled the helpless, smiling man around. The room started clapping, congratulating the very, very impromptu engagement of two mostly strangers. The moment gave Blake and Yang the perfect opportunity to slip out of the closet, Blake having successfully picked the lock. Nobody noticed the tear tracks, or the reddened eyes, or the fact that neither of them spoke to each other. The rest of night was spent in celebration, only not for them.

* * *

Yang hadn't been home in a few days.

Yang hadn't been home in a very long few days.

She'd left a note in Ruby's room, saying ' _i'm okay. be back in a while. love you -yang._ '

She'd left Weiss a note saying ' _thank you_ '.

She'd left the loft without a sound, without anybody noticing.

She'd left and now she was in a fury, because that seemed to be her default emotional state these days. Actually it was more of a wild swinging from cold, emotionless nothing, to white, blinding rage. Her latest victim was the large man behind the bar assaulting a woman, forcing himself onto her. Now he was out cold on the floor, bloody, and Yang felt her hands twitch, ravenous at the chance for a target. Blood pounded in her ears, and as the adrenaline left her system, she began to feel the ache in her knuckles, and she felt the blood ( _his blood_ ) drip down her hand and onto the cold Valean pavement. The woman had long gone, probably more afraid of Yang than she was the man. She didn't care. Not right now.

Yang stood up straight, taking a few moments to even out her breathing. Briefly she assessed the man. She'd given him a few bruises and broken his nose. Nothing serious, the small, very small, rational part of her mind chimed in in relief.

Yang stomped off, getting on her motorcycle and revving up the engine immediately. The bar owner had provided her with no answers, and she had gotten no closer to any lead, but she wasn't going to give up soon. She could feel the cut up photo in her pocket, its presence almost chilling against her skin, and for a moment she wondered what she would have thought of her actions. She dispelled the thought as soon as it popped up, more interested in finding her than what would happen afterwards. Short-sighted, maybe. But her mind was already full-up.

She didn't even dare to think of her name, she actively suppressed every thought of her. All that mattered now was finding the woman. Finding the truth. All that mattered now.

Qrow hadn't been home in a good long while, and Yang was guessing he wouldn't come home in a better, longer while, so she took free reign in commandeering his place while on the hunt.

She keyed the engine of her bike off, taking notice of her bruised knuckles, covered in now dried blood. She stuffed the keys in her pocket, taking off her helmet and heading into the building, producing the grey card from her back pocket. The guard posted in the lobby flicked his eyes over to her, then lazily returned to the magazine in hand. Yang made sure to keep her hands slightly concealed.

She took the elevator up to the pent-house, entering it and setting her helmet on the kitchen table with a little more force than she'd meant it to. Okay, so maybe she was a bit more than a little bitter that she'd turned up with no information, no lead to go on. All that hard work roughing up people, squeezing information out of crooks and vicious mobsters, and nothing to show for it. Yang sighed, going over to the kitchen sink to wash the blood off her hands.

Dimly, she wondered what her father would think of her using the lessons he taught her to go around beating up criminals for information. She was sure he wouldn't approve. She was sure he very, very vehemently wouldn't approve. She figured that whatever he didn't know wouldn't get her into trouble.

Yang bent over the sink.

Her life was a mess.

She sighed.

"Rough night, spitfire?" A familiar, gravelly voice came from behind her. Yang almost jumped out of her skin, and she thought she made a pretty good job of hiding it, but the same gravelly voice gave off a wheezy laugh, and she mentally cursed. She heard him step out of the shadows behind her, and she turned the faucet off and sighed, resting both arms on the lip of the counter and hanging her head.

"Hey, Uncle Qrow," she said quietly. She heard him hum a little, before appearing at the edge of her vision, leaning oh-so-casually against adjacent counter, clad in his grey suit, faintly smelling of whiskey, a few strands of hair hanging loosely over his forehead while the rest of it was swept back, grey and greying more with age.

"Gonna guess you didn't come over on a social call," he asked. Yang didn't look up. Qrow chuckled again.

The pair stood in silence for a while, with Qrow waiting patiently for his niece to explain herself, and said niece being her usual stubborn self. Qrow could out-wait her. His patience, although worn thin from the people he worked with, was vast for his family. Especially having watched the young girl grow up into the woman he saw before him now. Oh, if only Summer was still around...

"I didn't know you were around," Yang finally spoke, hands now clean of the dried blood, Qrow could see the ugly, familiar discolouration of knuckles. He only gave a slight frown in reaction. "I was kind of counting on you not being around, actually."

"Well, here I am," Qrow said, simply. Yang sighed again. "You mind explaining?" he asked, gesturing over at Yang's figure.

"I-" Yang started, but stopped when she realized she wasn't entirely sure herself. Her hand dropped to the photo tucked in her jacket pocket, feeling its presence, knowing exactly what it looked like. Who it was. Her eyes flicked to her uncle for a fraction of a second, and in the dim light, his hair looked as pitch black as hers, and his eyes almost glowed, in the same way she imagined hers would. If she'd ever met her that is. If she'd ever gotten to know.

"I'm looking for somebody," Yang said finally. Qrow nodded once, standing up fully to slowly walk to the liquor cabinet, though she could sense that all his focus was still on her. "I'm looking for... Raven."

Qrow stopped dead in his tracks at that. The mention of that name. A name he rarely ever heard mention of, much less from her. He clenched his fists a bit, before relaxing them.

"That's her name, isn't it?" Yang asked, now looking raptly at her uncle. "Raven. My mother."

Qrow sighed, opening the liquor cabinet and procuring a clear bottle of honey-coloured liquid. "Yeah, that's her."

Qrow took a swig from the bottle, because he was Qrow and who was anybody to deny him his drink, or his burgeoning alcoholism?

Yang stood in the silence, impatiently waiting for him to speak.

Qrow finally put the bottle down with an exhale, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Of course that's my sister. Of course," he shook his head. Qrow set both hands on the counter, staring intensely into the tiles. He sighed again. Qrow walked over to the window, the immense wall of glass on the far side of the room, his gaze miles and miles away from the sprawling city skyline. Yang just watched as her uncle stood in silence, contemplating and pondering.

Eventually, Qrow spoke. "Take a seat Yang, there's something I have to tell you."

* * *

Blake had an amazing, uncanny ability to stuff things away in her mind. She liked to think of it as 'Super Compartmentalization', but most psychologists (most people really) would probably call it 'Repressing Your Feelings'. Psh. What would they know about it?

Blake thought little about it. She needed to do it to survive. Or else she'd slip and fall into the dark hole of her past. The one with the man with blood-red hair and that murderous look in his eyes and the deep growl of his voice telling her that this was _necessary_ -

No. Not today. Not right now. Stuff it. Move on.

She walked out of her room, right past the gray door of the room that didn't exist, and to the front door of the loft.

She opened the door to find a tall blonde figure smiling at her.

"Sun!" she exclaimed, her smile blossoming slowly as she took him in. He had this lopsided grin on his face, one that she could never help but match, and in his hands he held a single sunflower. She definitely didn't falter at the sight of the plant, not even for a fraction of a second, definitely not because of the association long held in her mind about it and nobody in particular.

Instead she let her smile grow and accepted the flower with his kiss.

"Hey," Sun said, his demeanour certainly living up to his namesake. It was infectious. It was one of the many things Blake loved about him, she reminded herself. "I got tired of waiting and I already had the flower and- excuse the pun," he coughed slightly, eyeing the flower. Blake rolled her eyes.

Sun-flower. Har har.

"Was thinking about you when I got it, actually," he smiled sheepishly, fully aware of how dorky he was being. Another check for the 'Things I Love About You' list Blake kept. Blake clutched the flower to her chest, biting her lip and smiling. What a dork, she thought, before leaning up on her tip-toes to give him a kiss.

"Dork," she said, to which Sun smiled. "Let me go put this in a vase," she twirled the flower in her hands. She headed into the kitchen, where the clear glass vase was located on the kitchen island. She paused as she put it in, suddenly catching sight of the photos on the fridge.

Wild yellow hair, pearly white straight teeth, violet eyes. An arm locked around her own, a scream in her throat and a drink in her hand. Her expression was luminescent, and it made the dark-haired girl beside her beam and shine. Bright- far too bright for her to look at.

Blake turned around a little too quickly, her hip catching on the edge of the island slightly, bumping it. She cursed mentally, but walked away quickly all the same, back to the front door.

Back to the messy yellow hair, a shade lighter, the dark-grey eyes, and ultimately the one she chose.

"Shall we?" Blake asked as she appeared back at the front door. Sun straightened up and smiled, offering her his arm, allowing her to wrap her arm around it, just like- just like...

Forget the tear stained pillows, Blake thought to herself. Forget the sleepless nights and puffy eyes and the dull ache in her chest. Forget the niggling reservations and moments of self-doubt. Forget everything- forget _her_.

Forget her because he was here now, and he was here first. He was there when she wasn't and she couldn't abandon that, could she? How could she?

Blake looked into those gray orbs, and wished, not for the last time, and with a wave of shame, they were violet.

How could she abandon that?

How could she abandon her?

Blake took her arm, and they walked off.

* * *

"Did we do something wrong?" Ruby asked, her head hanging almost comically off of the edge of the sofa. Weiss had to admit, when she got the furniture for her office, she wasn't really expecting it to be for Ruby to lounge around on. She had to admit, however, the enormous sense of comfort it gave her that Ruby was around. Weiss paused on typing out the email.

"What do you mean?" she peeked out from behind her laptop. Ruby gesticulated her arms into the air dramatically with a huff.

"With Yang and Blake!" the younger girl almost whined. Weiss gave a little 'ah', then reset her gaze back on her laptop screen. She would just finish up this email, and then she would go over and talk to Ruby about it.

Only Ruby's puppydog sigh and defeated posture stopped her. She could tell that it had been bothering her for the past few days. Especially since Yang was gone, and Blake had pretty much stuck to herself, coming out of her room only in the dead hours of the night. The loft had felt sullen and cold, and not entirely like home anymore- hence why Ruby had taken to spending more time around Weiss' office. The Schnee heiress didn't mind much anyway. Ruby was usually reading or studying, and proved more beneficial than she thought, and less bothersome than she expected.

Plus, there was the added benefit of discreet make-out sessions in her office.

Truly, Weiss Schnee was living the life of a rockstar.

Truth be told, it was bothering Weiss too.

She hadn't gotten the full details from either Blake or Yang, with one being gone and the other barely around. All she knew was that it didn't end in the expected outcome. Her envisioned best-case scenario was that Blake would finally realize her feelings properly for Yang, break up with Sun (letting him down gently of course), then get together with Yang finally, and all four of them could have their happily ever afters, living like family in their loft.

But instead, she got this.

She honestly didn't expect her plan to backfire so spectacularly.

Weiss shut her laptop, giving up all hope of getting more work done in this state. Ruby was staring at her with wide silver eyes, and it made Weiss have to catch herself when her gaze caught them.

"Well, Ruby," Weiss sighed. She really didn't know where to begin. She'd never experienced anything like this. Ruby was supposed to be the one with all the knowledge about emotions and relationships and what exactly to do in situations like these. Situations where Weiss was completely and totally out of her depth. The downfall of Schnees- total lack of ability to articulate emotion.

"I... don't know," Weiss admitted, in an almost pathetic kind of way. She really couldn't make heads or tails of this one. Whatever they'd tried had seemed to make things worse. Did they actually do something wrong? It was entirely possible.

Ruby didn't break her gaze, and Weiss could see the despair in those big silver orbs. Weiss got up from her desk, crossing over to the sofa and settling herself in beside the younger girl, who immediately re-positioned herself into a cuddling position. Weiss put up no resistance. They both sat in silence for a while, their contact a form of comfort for each other.

"Do you think this can be fixed?" Ruby asked, breaking the silence after a while.

Weiss traced small circled on Ruby's back, the deep-red hair tickling her cheek. She hummed slightly. "I think it'll work out sooner or later," Weiss said, as much a comfort to herself as it was to Ruby.

"I hope so," Ruby whispered. In the end, that's all they could really ever do.

The two of them held each other for a while, feeling a part of them missing with the two girls that took it with them.

* * *

 **I know nothing much really happens, so I'm really sorry if this is a bit of a disappointment after the wait, but I can almost certainly promise you it gets better! Hope you enjoyed.**


	10. The Little Empty Space

**Hello! I have a few things to say to you. Yes, you.**  
 **1) This is the shortest chapter I have ever done for this story. I always try to hit at least 3000 words as a personal standard for myself. So please forgive me.**  
 **2) This chapter is also something of a filler, so that's really kind of sucky, huh? Lucky for you guys though,**  
 **3) The next chapter is coming out soon! I mean, soon. SOON. And it has plot. And stuff.**

 **So that's all I have. Thank you guys for your enjoyment of this story, it's really really comforting that somewhere out there (mainly USA, according to the traffic graph), people actually read and enjoy the trash that I write. Honestly me writing this is as much for myself as it is for you guys.** **I'm going on too long- please enjoy the story.**

* * *

"Jaune? Is something wrong?" Pyrrha asked, waving a hand in front of his face. The blonde snapped out of the trance he was in, immediately being brought back into the present. He hadn't realized he was so deep in thought. He looked up at Pyrrha, a sheepish smile on his face.

"Oh, sorry, I was-" he paused, considering just how stupid his next statement would be, but deciding to continue anyway. "I was thinking about you, actually." Pyrrha faltered, blushing bright red in a way that made Jaune's heart sing and made the smile on his face bigger than it already was. He was never, ever going to get tired of her, doing everything she did, especially when those things involved her being around him or him being around her or- Call him a lovestruck idiot, he probably wouldn't deny it, but at the same time, Jaune didn't care one bit. He had Pyrrha, and who cares about anything else when that was his reality?

"I'm right here, Jaune," Pyrrha said in between giggles. "You don't have to be thinking about me right now," she reached out to brush his veins with her fingers, making his heart race just a teensy bit faster than the breakneck pace it was already at. Jaune swallowed thickly, his adam's apple bobbing as he tried to regain his composure. Pyrrha sure knew how to get him going.

Unfortunately (probably fortunately for Jaune), the church frowned upon Pyrrha taking it a bit further. In fact, she had an inkling that most people would probably frown upon getting frisky during a wedding. Granted, it hadn't started...

No Pyrrha, the little voice inside her scolded. She frowned slightly at the judgey, vaguely mother-like voice inside her head. Jaune coughed awkwardly, regaining his composure. He started adjusting his tie, estimating it to the best of his ability to be straight. He'd seen adults do this a million times, and- oh god he was an adult now too? He almost shivered at the thought.

Pyrrha immediately took the opportunity, leaning in close to Jaune and grabbing his black silk tie. He froze, having just regained his composure, only to have Pyrrha knock it all down again like a badly constructed jenga tower. She was roughly the same height as him, and it let him view her up-close and see just how beautiful she was.

Eyes so green, not a blemish on her, save for the faint scar he could see, just under the dip of her chin, the small wisp of deep red hair that fell down, tickling the edge of her eyebrow, furrowed in deep concentration. Jaune was almost dumbstruck by her, especially up this close.

"Uh- is- is it on straight?" he asked her, clearing his throat a bit to distract himself from... her. Pyrrha smiled, tightening it a bit, making Jaune jerk slightly.  
"It's perfect," she eyed him once, up and down. "You look good, Jaune."

"Oh, thanks," he said, giving himself an appraisal, fiddling his cufflink the way that he saw fancy people always do in movies, feeling a bit fancy himself. "You look," he smiled at her, trying to find the right word in his head, because she was always so impossible to describe in coherent words. "Gorgeous. No, beautiful. Uh- resplendent?" he stammered out, watching Pyrrha stuff down her giggles. "You look very good, Pyrrha," he said finally. Well, at least he meant it. All of it.

Pyrrha's dress was all elegant and smooth and was deep red to match the colour of her hair, and there were dips and slits and all sorts of feminine sorcery he could never comprehend that served to make Pyrrha the most attractive person on earth, even if she already occupied that position on a daily basis. It was like double jeopardy with the dress on. No contest. Not for him.

Pyrrha responded with a kiss to his cheek. Jaune almost melted, which was crazy, because he was probably supposed to be over this phase by now. It was almost February, they'd been dating for almost 2 months. But each and every day seemed better than the last.

"Come on, the ceremony's about to start," Pyrrha said, tugging on his sleeve slightly. Jaune didn't fight her as she led them towards the altar, how could he? Briefly he imagine what it would be like the next time he'd see her at an altar. He stuffed the thought down as the organs began playing and the priest took his position.  
Given that Nora and Ren were together since they were 5, and _together-together_ for about 4 years, it made total sense that they had their wedding only 3 weeks after the proposal. After all, they'd waited long enough. It was pretty much all anybody expected from the pair, Jaune included.

What Jaune didn't expect was for Ren to ask him to be his best man. Maybe in hindsight, he should have. Ren didn't have any family left, and come to think of it, Jaune never really saw him hang out with any other guys. Ren and Jaune were basically brothers already, if only by the process of elimination.

What Jaune _really_ didn't expect was for Nora to ask Pyrrha to be her maid of honour. But apparently, Pyrrha had seen it coming from about a mile away. She took the request in stride- Nora had freaked out more about it then she had. Apparently in the 2 months since they got to know each other, the two of them had gotten very chummy. Go figure.

In any case, here they all were. Jaune on the other side of Pyrrha, with the organ playing and the priest in the middle. There were only a few people in the pews. The few people that mattered enough to be invited. All in all, it was set up to be a cozy little wedding. It was probably for the best, to minimize casualties from Nora's inevitable freak out. Jaune steeled himself as the church doors opened.

Ren and Nora were orphans. It wasn't any secret. They'd been raised in an orphanage, being sent to different foster homes from time to time, but always managing to find their way back to each other. They'd both gone to the same boarding school as soon as they were able, and they both had graduated and found their opportunities in life with each other. There was a very limited amount of people who could send them down the aisle. Truly, the both of them didn't have many options.

So, save for Nora's obscenely awkward suggestion of getting Weiss, their boss, to send them down the aisle, the both of them had opted to do the more sensible thing: send each other down the aisle.

Really, Jaune found himself less surprised than he should have been.

Nora appeared hand in hand with Ren as they walked down the aisle, a bit faster than normal- consequence of Nora's usual hyperactive self being enhanced by the excitement of a wedding, and even more so _her_ wedding. Ren was almost dragged along to the altar by the end, truly representative of their relationship, from start to end.

* * *

Perhaps it was a bit awkward to invite your boss, the CEO of the company you work at no less, to your small wedding. But seeing as Nora and Ren kept their social circle small surprisingly, and that truthfully, they were friends, Weiss supposed it could have been worse. They could have asked her to walk them down the aisle. That would have been terrible.

The few in the pews stood up as the both of them walked down the aisle.

Certainly one of the less traditional weddings Weiss had ever attended, but funny enough, it was one of the happier ones. It was certainly better than keeping up appearances and being polite to stuffy men in stuffier suits looking to exploit her name, using her to get to her father, or just plain using her.  
Instead Weiss was at a wedding surrounded by friends, alongside the people she loved-

Goodness, alongside the people she _loved_.

Maybe it was just something about 'Here Comes The Bride' (though it should technically be 'Bride and also Groom'), but Weiss was suddenly hit with a surge of unexpected emotion for those around her. It was certainly a strange thing for her- her of all people- to feel. Was this what normal people, people without the inability to articulate emotions properly, felt like?

It was almost a perfect day, except...

Except the yellow, tall, muscular spectre she felt and saw out of the corner of her eye. The one person that was missing. Her absence loomed larger, hit harder than her presence.

Briefly, Weiss' eyes flickered towards Blake, standing beside the _other_ blonde. She seemed to be hanging around Sun a lot nowadays.

Weiss had managed to squeeze out what had happened from her, but only barely, and she felt like it wasn't the entire truth. Now there was just a giant yellow elephant in the room every time the three of them were together. Consequently, they were rarely ever together.

3 weeks had never felt like a longer time.

She knew Ruby shared her sentiment, and not for the first time, Weiss felt a deep appreciation for the younger girl's existence in her life. Not that she would willingly admit it to her, but Weiss would be very much at a loss at what to do were it not for her. Ironic considering her age and her general... Ruby-ness. But Weiss had learned that she was far more mature than she let on. To be fair, a thumb tack probably had a bit more emotional maturity than Weiss did.  
The bride and groom took their place in front of the altar, and the ceremony began.

* * *

It was a beautiful wedding, even if Ruby had to stand in stupid lady shoes with their impractical heels seemingly designed to deform her feet. She could bear it for a little while.

She imagined that Yang would laugh at her, ruffling her hair and telling her it wasn't so bad. If she were here.

The priest said 'You may now kiss the bride' and Nora flung herself onto Ren, who was completely prepared for it, and held her up perfectly fine.

That's cute, Yang would say.

It's so cute, Ruby would exclaim, hand on her cheeks, and her eye would dart towards Weiss for the briefest of moments, and Weiss would be thinking the exact same thing as her.

Yang would catch her little look and try to stifle her laughter. Way, way too fast little sister, she would tell her, a elbow jabbing into her side. Ruby would slap her arm and blush a little more than she meant to.

Ruby wasn't aware they had brought in flower cannons, but with an explosive pop, a shower of pink petals rained down inside the church. A cold January day felt like an autumn in japan, even for a little bit, even inside a small church.

Ruby's gaze, as it always seemed to do, eventually fell on Weiss. She couldn't help but think about how beautiful she looked with that smile on her face being genuine.

I take it back, Yang would say. Both of you should just go get married. I wouldn't mind having my sister-in-law being a CEO.

Ruby would blush even harder, and would whisper shout Yaaaaaaannnnnggggg, in the same tone of voice a child used when their parent embarrassed them. Yang would respond in the same way a parent would, by laughing.

would decide to get back at her by then. What about you and Blake huh, she would ask, and Yang's gaze would fall onto the Faunus a little ways away from them, and her eyes would glaze over and she'd be looking somewhere else, somewhere a million miles away. Ruby always thought she looked like that when she was really, really looking at something. Appreciating it. Comprehending it.

She knew, because it was how she looked at Weiss.

I think Dad would really approve of somebody who can reign you in, Ruby would say in that knowing way she did when she thought she had the upper hand. And I would love to have her as my sister-in-law, Ruby would add.

Well it wouldn't work out Rubes, Yang would tell her. Because she doesn't love me the same. And I can't live my life like that, so I would leave. Things will never, ever be the same. And nothing will change that, Ruby.

Of course, Yang wasn't here.

But Ruby's heart was still heavy.

* * *

Weiss pressed a gentle kiss onto Ruby's forehead, careful not to wake her up. Her day always started way too early, and she knew Ruby would be cranky without sleep. She exited the room, already showered and with her work clothes on. She grabbed her purse, and her car keys from the bowl. Dawn was barely beginning to break, and the world was only just beginning to wake up. Weiss walked over to the door, opening it up.

Yang Xiao Long fell face first into Weiss, who barely managed to catch her.

Yang Xiao Long, back at the loft after 3 weeks, with her face covered in bruises and blood over the front of her shirt.

"Hey, Ice Queen," she wheezed out, her breath coming in laboured and ragged. "I'm back."


	11. The First Step

**Aaaaaaahhhhhh. I'm back.**

 ** **I am so very, _very_ sorry for the horrendously long wait time between the updates. 2 MONTHS?! Absolutely mad. Life has just been getting in my way of writing, and that kind of sucks really hard, but I hope this can make up for it just a little bit. Again, super sorry.****

* * *

Yang woke up feeling weird. She could only see out of one eye, and something fuzzy was covering her other eye. Her left arm felt really stiff and everything everywhere ached. The room was spinning a little bit.

Oh. More than a little bit.

A wave of nausea hit her, and she leaned over to her side and retched, only her stomach contracted painfully and nothing came out except acid and globules of foamy spit. She coughed and hacked, trying to regain her surroundings. This was not exactly how she had intended to wake up. Although she supposed it was good that she woke up at all.

The dull light of what she now recognized to be a hospital ward beat down on her, making her head pound a little. Yang breathed in deep, trying to collect herself. Her thoughts were still a little fuzzy, and the world was still spinning, man oh man what exactly happened? She should remember what happened, but Yang didn't recall anything after...

After meeting her Uncle Qrow?

It came to her in flashes and textures, and only bits and pieces of it. Blood and the smell of smoke and loud flashes and cracks of guns.

Yang retched again, and again nothing came out. She breathed heavy, and her body felt weak and tired and the room was still spinning.

"Oh," somebody called out from far away, very far away. "You're awake, goodness," they said. Then a blurry figure came into view, blocking the light, and Yang, in the briefest of moments, thought the black, shadowy figure to be Blake. Then the figure did something, and Yang's vision cleared a little bit as her heartrate slowed. Then everything slowed down, and Yang could catch a glimpse of the large man in scrubs standing over her as she drifted off to sleep, and her last thought was that that was decidedly not Blake Belladonna. How disappointing.

Yang went back to sleep.

* * *

"What happened?"

Blake stood at the foot of the bed, arms limp at her sides as she looked at Yang on the bed, head covered in bandages. She looked serene in her sleep. Like she wasn't covered in bruises and cuts, and there wasn't a thick wad of bandage wrapped around her head and a cast on her left arm. Yang looked peaceful, which was more than she could say for herself.

Blake walked over slowly to the side of the bed, and she let her fingers ghost slightly over Yang's wrist. She almost couldn't believe that Yang was back. She wished Yang hadn't come back right from the exit of a wood chipper, but there you go. That was Yang. Subverting everybody's expectations when they least expected them to. Fall in love with her at your own behest.

Her breath caught in her throat. She couldn't help but feel that this was her doing. Her fault. It was silly, and childish, and the real reason was probably more complex than that. But standing there over her broken form, Blake felt mildly responsible. There was an ache deep in her chest, and she took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"We don't know yet," Weiss said finally, sighing. "She came to the loft bleeding and bruised. She passed out on the way to the hospital, and I don't know if she's woken up since."

Blake crossed her arms, taking a step away from the bed, trying to recollect herself.

Yes, she definitely felt more than a little responsible for her.

"Blake," Weiss grabbed her elbow a little more than gently, snapping her out of her reverie. Weiss' steel-blue pierced through her, grounding her for a moment. She relaxed herself, if only marginally, taking a half step back. Weiss sighed, brushing a hand over Blake's arm momentarily before returning it to her side.

"What are we going to do?" Blake asked, in a way that was naked and lost and afraid, and Weiss' heart ached for her. She couldn't even imagine how she was feeling.

"We wait," Weiss said softly, mustering up what littler certainty she had left in her. Willing up hope beyond hope.

* * *

Yang dreamed.

Yang dreamed explosively.

A bang, flash of yellow, a mixture of red and grey and stars all around her. The technicolour morphed and ebbed and flowed all around her. She swam through the dream, floated through with ease. It happened in the way that things did in dreams. They just _were_. No rhyme or reason or cause and effect. She felt and saw and heard things whizz past her quickly, before the sensation of drowning hit her, and the sharp clang of metal hitting metal.

Scenes and scenes and scenes morphed and transformed before her.

Then it all stopped. Like somebody had stopped the film reel. Colours stayed in place, then slowly dulled and melted away. Everything turned into nothing.

Clear as day, Blake Belladonna appeared out of the shadows.

"Hi," Yang said to her after an indeterminable amount of silence. "Hi, Blake."

"Hello," Blake said, and Yang could already feel herself settling down. She relaxed into the couch that they had picked out and bought for the loft because the previous one was lumpy and gross and uncomfortable. The sun was just setting, and through the windows the sunlight framed Blake perfectly, like a scene out of a movie.

"I've missed you," Yang said. She sighed heavily. "I've missed you a lot."

Blake didn't respond.

"I can't even remember what I did but I remember I always thought about you right before I went to sleep. You were the last thing on my mind every night. It was driving me a bit crazy, actually. Then again, that's pretty normal, huh?" Yang sighed again.

"You left," Blake said, and Yang shrank a little bit.

"I did," Yang said.

"We didn't know where you went," Blake said, her voice even. Not hurt, not disappointed, not relieved. Just flat. Somehow Yang thought that was worse. "We didn't know if you were okay."

"I know," Yang said, and they left it at that.

"How's Weiss and Ruby?" Yang said after a while. Blake shrugged, her gaze permanently fixated on the wall. "How's Sun?"

Blake looked at her.

"Oh, Yang..." she said, only it was the funniest thing, her mouth didn't move. Blake looked up, and Yang followed her gaze, and everything blew away like it was made out of sand. "Yang..." the voice called out again and Yang's heart sank and a pit formed in her gut. Blake's voice had always been distinctive to her.

Light came to her slowly, through heavy eyelids.

* * *

Blake had never been happier to see the colour purple. It almost seemed to beam out from the single half-open eyelid. It froze her right on the spot. It stilled her heart for a moment, and at the same time, made it almost burst out of her chest. A purple iris, slowly focusing onto her. Blake had always thought Yang's unique shade of lilac was beautiful, but right now it seemed like the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

"Ow," Yang croaked out, soft and small and her lips curling up ever so slightly. Blake wanted to throttle her and hug her and kiss her and scream at her, but she instead chose to settle with laughing.

"Yang," she said, her throat tight. What else could she say, really? "Yang," she choked out again, and immediately dove in to hug her. Dimly it occurred to her to be careful, but at the moment, she was just _relieved_.

"Hi," Yang whispered, and her arms gingerly wrapped around Blake's form. Yang winced a little from the overload of emotion and sensation. But one thought cut through the haze in her mind- Blake was _here_. Nothing would have made her happier.

"Oh, god, Yang we were so worried," Blake said, muffled as she buried her face into Yang's shoulder. Yang began to wince more noticeably now, and Blake recoiled. "I'm sorry! Sorry, I- Are you alright?" she bit her lip, mentally berating herself for her carelessness. She ran a hand through her hair; god, she was a mess.

"I'm okay," Yang smiled. Not quite her toothy grin, but she had just woken up from a really long nap. "I'm really glad to see you. Do you have any water?" Yang swallowed thickly, suddenly feeling the dryness in her throat. How long had she been out?

Judging from Blake's behaviour, way too long. Blake withdrew a water bottle from her purse, handing it over to the blonde. She hesitated as she watched Yang's weak grip on the bottle.

"Here," Blake said, uncapping the lid and helping Yang drink. She took a long swig and mumbled out a thanks.

"How are you feeling?" Blake asked as she set the water down. Yang closed her eyes and sighed. To be honest, she didn't really know. She wasn't in excruciating pain right then and there. The pain was there, but without her moving it would be a bit difficult to tell how bad it was. Yang touched the bandage covering her left eye, slightly poking at it. She looked down at her form. Her left arm was in a cast, and she could feel the myriad of bandages criss-crossing her body. She looked worse than she felt really, but she didn't feel particularly good either.

"I'm... okay," Yang responded tentatively. Blake bit her lip again.

"You don't need me to call you a nurse or...?" she trailed off, looking off to the side at the door.

"Nurse? No, I'm- I'm okay," Yang said in a breathy laugh. She swallowed thickly again. "Blake... what happened?" she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. Her head was hurting now, the more she tried to think about what she remembered.

"I... don't know, Yang," Blake replied, small and uncertain. Yang brought up a hand to her temple. Her mind felt like it was splitting in two. She saw a bright flash and heard the loudest crack she'd ever heard, and she felt nausea threatening to overtake her. God, god, god what happened? Her eye that was shut tight in concentration and effort and pain opened and she saw Blake looking down, more than a little concerned. She looked downright frightened. Yang took in a large gulp of air, trying to steady herself. Sound slowly started fading, like somebody was trying to turn down the volume on reality.

The nurse Blake called for rushed over with a syringe, and the last thing Yang saw before she went back to sleep was Blake Belladonna and she thought, that was okay with her.

* * *

"Yang!"

"Ruby!"

Ruby hopped from one leg to the other on the spot. The early morning couldn't stop the young girl's energy and exuberance. By now, there was a sneaking suspicion among the tenants of loft 4B that nothing short of the apocalypse could.

"Aaaaahhhhhhcanihugyou?!" Ruby squealed, at something short of subsonic speed and frequency. Luckily her sister was proficient in both dolphin and blue hedgehog.

"Yes, but really carefully!" she replied.

Ruby bounced over to Yang's bed, doing her best to gingerly give her sister a hug. Yang responded in kind, wrapping her free arm around Ruby's neck as she nuzzled into her neck. God, she had missed her baby sister.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Ruby said, quietly and sounding far, far older than she had any right to be. Yang should have expected that Ruby would grow up right behind her back.

"I'm glad I am too, sis," Yang smiled. She was feeling better and better by the minute.

Ruby pulled away from the hug and looked at the others surrounding the bed.

"Weiss, come give Yang a hug!" she beckoned the girl over. Weiss folded her arms and quirked a brow at the younger girl. Ruby pouted a little bit. Then she pouted a lot, and Weiss could almost roll her eyes out of her skull. She sighed, and went over anyway, because who was she kidding? She gave Yang a quick embrace that was less awkward than it could have been.

"I'm happy to see that you're okay. Relatively okay," Weiss said, giving a genuine smile. One that Yang returned.

"Yay!" Ruby threw her hands up. "Blake, you get in here too!"

Blake didn't bother rolling her eyes, because she knew that when Ruby wanted something bad enough, it was just an eventuality. It was a known fact that adorableness beat every wall, shield, door and general resistance that was ever put up.

So they all had a big group hug, and it was great.

And for a little while, everything seemed great.

* * *

The days and weeks went by fine. Better than fine. The days and weeks went by happy. Each girl would rotate out their shifts on seeing Yang. Ruby would drop in in the mornings. Classes were starting back up soon, as the days got a little warmer, and Ruby's second year would start soon. She'd obviously aced her finals in what she described as a stroke of luck, but what Yang knew to be just her little sister being the genius she always was. In the afternoons, Weiss would come in for her lunch break, usually with food in hand, and the three of them would have lunch together after Weiss gave Ruby a quick peck on the lips-

OH, WAIT. WHAT?

Yang did a spit-take, coughing and choking on her water. She felt her bruised ribs ache dully, but she was more preoccupied with the newfound development in the- with the- Weiss kissing and-

"What?" Yang managed to ask in between fits of coughing. Ruby thumped her back slightly in concern, while Weiss clenched her fists and stewed in beet-red embarrassment. "No, no, what?!"

"Relax Yang!" Ruby soothed, in the least soothing tone of voice. Her panic was etched onto her face as she look between Weiss and Yang frantically, her brain kicking into overdrive to figure out a solution. Her sister was dying and her girlfriend was- Heh, _her girlfriend_ -

"When?" Yang finally ceased her coughing fit and gingerly ghosted over the bruises on her ribs, soothing the pain. Ruby walked over to Weiss and linked arms with her in what could only be described as an act of concentrated adorableness. Truly, Yang thought, these precious babies were too innocent for the world. She grinned wide, making the both of them blush madly. Yang leaned forward onto her tray table, holding her chin up with her free hand and smiling wide. Ruby met eyes with Weiss and nodded, and Weiss nodded back, their eyes full of steely resolve now. Yang almost laughed right then and there.

"Yang," Ruby began. She faltered, clearing her throat several times as she looked back and forth between the two again. "Uh..."

"Me and Ruby," Weiss stepped in. "Ruby and I," she swallowed thickly. "We-"

"Weissismygirlfriend!" Ruby blurted out suddenly, cutting the older girl off. She clamped her hand immediately over her mouth as her eyes widened.

Then the giggles started. Ruby first, then Yang, and even Weiss had to laugh.

Yang recovered, even though it made her ribs twinge she still had to laugh. "Oh, congratulations you guys. I knew it'd happen sooner or later," she sighed a little more than wistfully. "Just wished I hadn't missed it."

Both of them gave Yang wide smiles, and Yang couldn't have been happier.

She drummed her fingers on the tray enthusiastically. "So!" Yang said, leaning back in on her free hand with a wide, dopey smile on her face. "Give me the details. How's the se-" She paused, then tilted her head a bit, considering Ruby, wide-eyed and genuinely curious about the end of Yang's sentence. Then she shifted her focus to Weiss, whose face had already morphed into one of anger and mortification. Yang sighed, blowing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "How'd it happen," she conceded, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

Weiss blew out breath she was holding in as Ruby launched into an excited tirade. Slyly, Yang wiggled her eyebrows at her, and Weiss felt the blush heat up her neck as she swallowed thickly, then chose to be very, very invested in Ruby's retelling of how it had happened.

The days kept going by.

* * *

"Okay?"

"Okay," Yang said in-between gritted teeth. She clenched her eyes shut, taking in a deep breath. Blake held her side, supporting Yang on one side as she leaned against the support beam on the wall. Yang breathed in deep several more times before putting more weight on her legs. Blake kept a wary eye on the blonde, ready to catch her if she lost her balance, ready to help her in any way she needed. Yang grunted as she rested the full weight of her body on her legs. "Ta-da," she laughed weakly. Blake laughed, squeezing her arm slightly.

Physiotherapy was going well.

This was the part that the books and movies never told you about. They always covered the big fight, where the hero gets injured, but never the small moments, the slow plodding of the days going by as they attempted to pick their pieces back up. The movie that was to be made about Yang would cover her adventures, not her grueling moments in the hospital where it looked like she was heading nowhere and making no progress. Well, the movie would cover Yang's adventures if she could ever recollect those adventures. Other than vague images and scenes, Yang still had no clear idea of what she had done in the weeks she was gone. Blake supposed it didn't matter. Still, she was curious.

"Okay, Yang, I think that's a pretty neat trick," Blake nodded, impressed.

"Aren't I just the best?" Yang huffed out another laugh before gently shifting the weight off her legs and supporting herself back on the beam. Out of the corner of her eyes, Blake eyed the strain Yang was putting on her forearms. It was impressive, for reasons other than what other might have had in mind. Yang may have been beaten, but she was certainly not broken.

"That enough for today?" Yang asked.

"That's enough for today," Blake affirmed, feeling a little bit more than proud of the blonde. "Let's get you back in the chair and I'll get the nurse," Blake said, supporting her friend as they moved towards the wheelchair.

Yang settled into the wheelchair with a sigh of relief, wiping a bead of sweat off of her forehead. "I'm pooped," she said, slumping in the chair. Blake rolled her eyes, giving her arm a little poke.

"Just a little bit of standing, Yang. Nothing to it," she said.

"Nothing to it," repeated Yang with a little laugh. Yang smiled, looking up at Blake. She swallowed thickly, looking away and biting her lip, and opened her mouth, something clearly on her mind. She then shook her head, closing her mouth.

Blake quirked a brow at her, and Yang sighed.

"Blake," Yang said, very carefully.

"Yang," Blake said, very incredulously.

"Are... are we...?" Yang twirled a lock of hair around her finger and cleared her throat before sitting up straighter and resting her hands in her lap. "Well, I mean, are me and you- you and I... okay?"

Blake's ears twitched a little bit, and she suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to run, run as fast and far away as she could. If she was honest with herself, the thought had crossed her mind more than several times since Yang had come back, but more important things had come in the way, like making sure Yang wasn't dead. Blake had mostly been happy that Yang was alive and back at all, never mind either of their unresolved feelings for each other. But now that Yang was better...

Blake loved Yang. Unequivocally, whole-heartedly, unconditionally. Blake loved Yang.

But Blake was scared, and confused, and Blake didn't want to ruin things for everybody because everywhere Blake had been before, there usually tended to be a trail of destruction that followed.

Only those things didn't seem to matter too much when Blake was with Yang, which scared her half to death because it made it feel like the enemy was gone, when Blake knew that what was broken inside her wasn't fixed because of Yang, it was just hidden. She knew, and she wondered if Yang understood.

Those big pools of purple didn't seem to care too much, though.

Blake sighed internally.

Blake loved Yang. That wasn't going to change. It made her heart jump a little bit at the unexplored possibility of that. That Blake loved Yang so much and Yang loved Blake just as much, and she could be in love with her and she could be just as in love with her and that it would all work out. It made her heart inflate at just the thought of it, and Blake had to pull the brakes on that line of thought, because Yang was still looking at Blake, and Yang was sitting in a wheelchair, and things were better, much, much better than they were before but it still wasn't perfect.

"We're okay, Yang," Blake said, taking Yang's uninjured hand in her own, looking right into her eyes. "I'm so glad you're back," she whispered, lifting the hand up and placing a gentle kiss on a knuckle before squeezing it and letting go. It was a promise, to the both of them, of the things to come.

* * *

 **We're getting so very close to the end, lads and ladettes! The next few chapters should be very exciting. I promise I'll get them out faster than this one.**


	12. Shelter From The Storm

**Haha oops I took far, far too long. Exams are not pretty, and they are almost finished, and I am a ruined man with far too little time, far too much to study, and far too many video games to distract me. Nevertheless, I present this as my parting gift, from me to you, before I kill myself in an exam hall because I am trash like that.**

 **Kidding. I still have one or two more chapter to give you. And many, many more stories after that. I can't die yet! On a serious note, I do apologize for this taking as long as it did. But I hope you still enjoy it for what it's worth.**

* * *

"Hi," Sun said, leaning down slightly to give Blake a peck on the cheek. Blake smiled, allowing herself to be wrapped in his quick embrace. "How is she?" Sun asked as he settled himself back behind the counter. Blake didn't meet his eyes for a while, biting her bottom lip and shrugging slightly.

"She's fine. Getting better, actually. Doctors said she's going to start physiotherapy soon," she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, cleared her throat slightly before crossing her arms. "They said it might be helpful for us to be around for that."

A short silence reigned over the bookshop for a moment. A quick minute, maybe. Or maybe it was an eternity. Or maybe it was a normal amount of silence, and Blake's mind was just running, running altogether too loud and too fast. Sun's gaze never left hers, and Blake couldn't help but feel something like pity. Something like sympathy. For the blonde standing across her. Blake was aware, dimly, that she was being a very bad girlfriend, in the worst possible sense of that term.

Her presence in the past few weeks had been scarce. She'd mostly filled her hours at the hospital. Maybe she'd seen less of her boyfriend than she had meant to. Blake had justified it with the fact that Yang- _Yang_ was alive and in the hospital. It was nothing short of a miracle, something Blake was immensely, absolutely grateful for. Her days had brightened considerably, getting back to the place she had come to recognize as normal, the place where she had long admitted was her home. More than any other place had felt before. And so she had all but abandoned Sun the moment she had found home.

Sun was acutely aware of this.

Sun was acutely aware of Blake, and he had a feeling he understood her better than she understood herself.

Truthfully, Sun knew. Sun knew somewhere inside, about the all encompassing truth that was Blake and Yang's love for each other. It had taken him a little while, but to his eternal credit, he had still gotten it faster than either of them had. Ever since that night, during the party. He had had his sneaking little suspicions (Sun was more perceptive than people ever gave him credit for) here and there. He would catch secret glances, unknowing touches, knowing touches. He'd never mentioned it, never even thought about it much.

Then the bottle had landed on Yang, and had Pyrrha had given her the dare she had asked for, and two wires connected in his mind, and electricity raced all around, all inside him. If he wanted to, he could have stopped it. It would have been well in his rights to do so. They were, after all, dating. And it wasn't like he would have cared if anybody had called him a prude or anything had he been uncomfortable with his girlfriend kissing somebody else. He could have stopped it.

But he didn't because he wanted to see where it went. Sun Wukong rolled the dice, and he had hoped it would have landed in his favour. Life hadn't been particularly kind to him before, but maybe this one time...

But it wasn't like him to let something get him down for long. Orphanages and foster homes and streets and everybody, every person he'd met, and here Sun was still, and he prided himself on his happiness, on his normalcy despite everything. Blake was an added bonus, something he'd never thought he would ever get the chance to wish for, let alone meet. And he was right, the first time, when she had rejected him. He'd taken it in stride because some small part of him thought that he was being greedy, asking for more. More than being just friends with Blake. More than what life had allowed him.

Back on up, Sun Wukong went. Now he was back to where he began, and he looked on at Blake and he could only imagine how much she loved Yang. He didn't know if he could. But there was a feeling, in the back of his mind, a little shard embedded in his heart, a small voice, that told him: theirs was a love he couldn't ever compare with. What he saw only served to back that up.

So Sun knew what he had to do. And he had made his mind up without a second thought, without a shadow of a doubt.

"Blake," Sun stood up straight, then after a moment's reconsideration, swung himself over the counter, so that the both of them were face to face. "I get it."

Blake's expression shifted, from one of mild curiosity to concern. Sun could only imagine what she was thinking. "What do you mean, Sun?"

Sun bit his lip. "Maybe that came out bad," he leaned against the counter, a thoughtful expression on his face. Blake was utterly confused, with the first hints of guilt beginning to seep into her gut.

"I- I understand, Blake," Sun carefully metered out. "Jeez, how do I say it?"

Sun looked at Blake, and saw the mess of emotions that threatened to spill out of that thin veneer of something like stoicism. He could only imagine what she was thinking. He could only imagine how she would react. But it was the truth, it was something that needed to happen, and Sun knew there was no getting out of that. It was for the best. Really it was. And he meant that not in the way that people did when they realized that the relationship that they were in diminished them, because of course any other alternative to that would be for the best.

He meant that Yang and Blake were a force of nature, an eventuality, an inescapable truth, and he knew more than anything that of course, of course they were meant to be together. And he wouldn't deny that. And he wouldn't deny them that.

"You love her," Sun nodded once. "I mean, obviously, right?" he scoffed. "And I'm sure- I'm really really sure she loves you too."

Blake stood rooted to the spot, completely silent. Sun took that as his cue to continue. He cleared his throat a little bit. His only mercy would be to get this over as quickly as possible. Like a band-aid, they always said. Sun sighed mentally.

"I really hope you know what I mean when I say you guys love each other. What am I talking about? 'Course you do. You're all smart and stuff, Blake. Smart and pretty and funny- you're the complete package!" Sun laughed a little bit, like it was a small joke he made to himself. "Which is why I really want you guys to be with each other. Which means that you can't be with me. Which means that we have to break up. Which means that we are. Breaking up," Sun smoothed down his hair, biting his lip again.

Blake hadn't said anything and her face was as imperceptible as ever. Sun supposed he took that as a good sign. It wasn't absolute, vehement rejection of the idea. It was Blake's careful consideration of what Sun had said.

"I'm sorry," was what Blake finally said, and Sun knew she meant it. How could she not?

Sun nodded with a sage little smile on his face. He extended his arms, and brought Blake in to rest against his chest. "'sokay," Sun sighed, rubbing her back. "We're- we can still be friends right?"

Blake pulled away to look at him, something like a perplexed expression on her face. Sun almost shook his head. Maybe she couldn't understand that yes, Sun did in fact understand. Maybe she was just really, _really_ grateful and this was her funny little way of showing it. She opened and closed her mouth several times.

"Is that a yes...?"

Blake opened and closed her mouth several times again.

 _God_ , she hadn't expected him to make this so easy on her.

Blake really didn't know how to feel. So she started laughing. A small giggle that bubbled out of her, that started turning into deep, throaty laughs. And then she started crying. And hugging Sun tightly.

"I get it," Sun shrugged as she rocked against him in laughter.

* * *

Yang munched on the apple slice. The sun was up, and her blankets were comfortably adjusted just so. Her legs weren't yet fully functioning, but the doctor had seen fit to discharge Yang from the hospital. She just needed to keep up with her physical therapy 3 times a week. All things considered, it wasn't a horrible deal. It could have been worse. Yang pondered for a moment. She didn't have any actual idea how much worse her injuries could have been. Maybe it was okay, maybe she had gotten the short end of the stick. She chewed slowly as she gingerly tried to piece together any sort of valuable information from her memories.

Gunpowder. Gunshots. Pain. Flashes of light. Uncle Qrow.

Uncle Qrow.

As in, Uncle Qrow was in the room. Right in front of her.

Oh.

"Hey, kid," he said in that casual tone of voice he had, hands in his pockets and back hunched and all. His hair was a bit more disheveled than usual, strands hanging down loose over his forehead, and his clothes were a bit more unkempt than usual. But he looked no worse for wear. "How are you doing?"

Yang swallowed her apple slice. "I don't know," she answered truthfully. He smiled in a way that didn't really meet his eyes. Mourning, or rueful if anything. Qrow sauntered over beside Yang's bed, sliding out a chair and taking a seat beside her.

"I'll bet," he sighed, taking in her appearance. His eyes traveled over the bandages around her head and limbs, grimacing slightly as he eyed each one. "You don't remember anything, do you?"

Yang shook her head. "Not a thing," she met his eyes. Cold violet against dull red.

"And you know why."

"I know why?"

Yang cast her eyes downwards, racking her mind again. How could she know why? She couldn't remember anything after she had met Qrow at his apartment-

Oh.

She met his eyes again.

"I know why."

Qrow nodded, satisfied but solemn. "Okay," his fingers twitched a little as he fidgeted them in his lap. Yang quirked a brow at him. "I'm sorry," he finally said after a pregnant pause. "I'm sorry this happened to you. It shouldn't have. I'm your uncle, I'm supposed to take care of you."

"You did," Yang said, and Qrow looked at her quizzically. "Remember?"

Qrow froze, before a smile cracked on his face. "I guess I did."

"I'm fine, Uncle Qrow. I'll be fine. I've got Ruby and everybody looking after me."

"Yeah, well. It'd probably take that many people to make sure you're not going to go off and try take on any more mob bosses, get yourself killed next time," Qrow stood up, a grin on his face matching the one on Yang's. He leaned forward and wrapped his niece in a brief, tender hug. "I gotta go. See you around, kid."

"See you around, Uncle Qrow."

He disappeared out of the room, and Yang took another bite of her apple slice, now a little more content and thoughtful than she was before. The sun was up, and her blankets were adjusted comfortably so. Her legs weren't yet fully functioning, but it could have been a lot worse. She neatly folded and compartmentalized those thoughts away, to revisit for another time. Blake was coming by soon. She smiled, finishing off her apple slice. Memory was a funny thing.

* * *

Weiss drummed her fingers on the steering wheel once, and made a little sound in the back of her throat that betrayed her impatience. It had been a while, they had to be out any minute now...

She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel again, biting the inside of her cheek. She counted the seconds in her head, waiting to see the flash of yellow and black from the glass pane exit out the automatic doors.

Weiss was a busy woman. She was the owner of her own company after all. Consequently this meant that she had seen Yang the least amount of times over the past weeks she had been in the hospital. Even less so the past week, what with the new spring themed calendar around the corner, amongst other things. She was just grateful that her job hadn't required her to travel internationally, as she recalled her father and sister having done so much in her youth, leaving her lonely and forlorn. She couldn't imagine leaving her friends for more than a few days, though she would never easily admit it, she would miss them too much.

Case in point, her increased drumming against the steering wheel as she waited, antsy, for Blake and Yang to come out.

"Impatient, much?" Ruby asked from the passenger seat, wrapping her own hand around Weiss'. A simple gesture that could still make her heart hammer in her chest. She worried her bottom lip as she looked over to the younger girl, who was grinning wildly. Weiss blew out a breath, shutting her eyes and calming her racing mind. Ruby brushed her hand against her forehead, tracing her hand down to her shoulder, squeezing slightly in an attempt to soothe her. "They'll be out soon."

Weiss nodded, a little more than adorably, and it took a huge chunk of Ruby's willpower to not lean over and kiss her right then and there. She was sure Weiss didn't want to look all disheveled in front of Blake and Yang. _Especially_ Yang. Though now, thinking about it, Ruby wouldn't exactly mind Weiss like that. She was sure Weiss could put up with the teasing from Yang for a little while. Besides, they were just killing time, right?

Wait no, stop. Bad Ruby, she mentally scolded herself. She cleared her throat slightly and looked at a point above Weiss' head, trying to keep her thoughts strictly PG.

Well, PG-13 was still PG...

Weiss snapped her fingers, pulling Ruby out of her reverie. Well it didn't exactly help, because Weiss looking at Ruby with an inquisitive, almost incredulous expression like that was actually working for her.

"Seriously, Ruby?" Weiss quirked a brow at her, like she could read her mind. Which, she probably could at this point. Anyway, it didn't take a genius to connect Ruby's daydream face with the way she was glazing over her form with her eyes. Weiss knew where her mind tended to wander. She pushed down a blush threatening to creep up on her, instead fixing a glare on Ruby, who cleared her throat once more, and looked out her window guiltily.

"Just... thinking about what we're doing later!" Ruby replied breezily, innocently. Weiss rolled her eyes. Ruby smiled then, looking at her, biting her bottom lip, and speaking in a lower voice, in her best impression of a sultry voice, " _Your room or mine?_ "

It was a pretty damn good impression, Weiss thought, swallowing hard. Ruby mentally cheered for herself. _Blush City, Population: Adorable Weiss_.

"Oh look, it's Blake and Yang," Weiss cleared her throat this time, pointedly focusing on the pair exiting the double doors of the hospital, with Blake happily wheeling Yang in a wheelchair.

"Oh look, it's Blake and Yang," Ruby repeated innocently, a wild smile on her face as she watched Weiss squirm, Ruby having invaded her thoughts. She'd always found it a treat to tease Weiss, but she never could have imagined the amount of fun it would be once they were dating; especially when Weiss was so easy to make blush. Oh, Weiss was plenty fun for Ruby in more ways than one.

" _Ruby_ ," Weiss said in a warning, high-pitched tone, as she tried to compose herself with the dirty, horrible thoughts running through her head.

"Hey you guys!" Yang called out from outside the car, waving. Weiss shot a dirty look at Ruby before exiting the vehicle, leaning down (much more naturally this time!) into Yang's outstretched arms. "It's been a while, Ice Queen," Yang smiled toothily, her eyes darting from Weiss to Ruby. The royalty in question hadn't noticed this yet.

She huffed, smiling a little. "Well, some of us have jobs to do instead of lazing around in bed all day."

"Ouch," Yang placed a hand on her chest, mock affronted. "Is that what you think I do all day? Well, maybe I should ask Ruby about how much time _you_ spend in bed?"

Yang waggled her eyebrows as every blood vessel in Weiss' brain broke and her face went as crimson as it would go. She stood still for a little while, before her brain sputtered back into gear. Weiss snatched the duffel bag on Yang's lap, walking briskly to the back of the car, opening up the trunk to stuff it inside as she fumed silently. The Rose-Xiao Long family would be the death of her- this she swore. Weiss shut the trunk with a louder _thud_ than was justified, but Weiss couldn't exactly take her frustrations out on the wheelchair-bound girl. Her sister, however, would get what she deserved in due time.

"Ack! Watch the arm!" Yang yelped. Weiss quirked an eyebrow as she witnessed the complicated procedure that was attempting to get Yang Xiao Long into a car seat. Currently, both of her legs were held up by Ruby inside the car, while Blake had her arms hooked under Yang's arms, and they were slowly attempting to shimmy the blonde into a prone position in the back seat. Ruby's strained efforts were heard clearly, while clear beads of sweat dotted Blake's forehead as they tried their best to hold the heavier girl up.

"Yang- why- are- you- so... _heavy_?!" Ruby grunted as she tugged at the limp girl's leg, much to her distress.

"Ow, ow, ow, careful with the le- _What do you mean I'm heavy?!_ " Yang flailed her uninjured arm about to get a good smack in on her younger sister, but all it served to do was throw Blake off balance, which was a precarious position to be in when you were holding up what was essentially one hundred pounds of stacked muscle, give or take. It felt closer to 200, but honestly what was the difference. All Blake knew was that her shoulders were going to pop right out of their sockets and she absolutely _could not_ drop Yang she was already injured. Then Yang started flailing and Blake's life flashed before her eyes. They were going to die. All of them. Right then and there. Oh dear god.

"I mean you are like a sack of bricks oh my god did _you not lose any muscle in the hospital?_ " Ruby tugged harder, careful to be a bit gentler in her grip with the more injured leg.

"Guys- could we please- oh my god is half of your weight just your boobs?" Blake said in-between gritted teeth.

"Blake, now is not the time to be thinking about my boobs!" Yang pointed a finger right into her cheek. She turned to look at Ruby. "Ruby, put your back into it! Don't be a wimp!"

"I am not a wimp, you're just unreasonably heavy!"

Weiss sighed, finally taking pity on the trio. She placed both hands under Yang's back, and _heaved_. She coasted through the initial momentum, putting Yang into a sitting position in one fluid motion.

"There," Weiss said simply, nodding in satisfaction as the rest of them, Yang included, looked on in bewilderment. "All of you are... wimps."

Ruby was the first one to break, her giggles coming in and building up like the waves of a high tide. Yang and Blake followed suit, and soon the whole lot of them were laughing like maniacs in the parking lot of a hospital.

Everything felt good again. None of them could have been happier in that moment.

The drive home was animated and filled with conversation. All of them fell back into their easy patterns. All of them fell back into what they knew as normalcy. What they knew was contentment. What they knew was home. For the first time in a while, it truly felt like they were all home.


	13. Something Good Can Work

**Hello! Welcome back. Hi. How have you been? I've been doing pretty alright, actually. It's been a slow crawl, but here it is. The next chapter. And you know what else? I've already written down the next 2 chapters, and they'll be coming out very very soon after this one. I hope you really do enjoy this story as we come closer to the end.**

* * *

Walking. One foot after the other. Two steps, left then right. Easy. Yang gripped the bars tight, the muscles in her arms flexing and she shuffled the first foot forward. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face, collecting at the point of her chin and dripping down onto the floor. She stared at her feet, intense and determined. She willed, willed with everything in her mind for her feet to move, and watching her toes twitch and slowly curl as she slowly lifted one foot, hovering it above the ground, moving it forward, and placing it back down.

Yang let out a laboured breath, then repeated the process with her other foot. Then repeated the process. And again. And again, arms still in their vice grip on the bar, moving in time with the motion of her body.

Walking. One foot after the other. Two steps, left then right. Easy.

Before too long, before Yang could even register it, the bars stopped. There wasn't any bar to hold onto anymore. She jerked her head up, looking forward. Then she let go, and leaned forward.

Ruby caught her, swift and easy and without hesitation. She grunted a little as she held the weight of her sister up, but the bright grin split on her face as Yang laughed breathlessly.

"Nothing to it," Yang breathed out, hugging her baby sister. "Nothing to it."

"Nothing to it," Ruby squeezed the blonde before leading her to her wheelchair. Yang sat down with a little thump, sweat matting her hair onto her forehead. She exhaled loudly, wiping the sweat off her brow. Ruby beamed endlessly at her, passing her a bottle of water, which she took a swig of gratefully.

Months.

Months of physical therapy, and here she was, barely able to walk again.

It was exhausting, and it wasn't much, but it was _progress_ damn it, and she was happy. She was grateful, and she was happy. Yang leaned into the chair, more calm and relaxed than she had been in a long time, strangely.

"Blake's coming over in a little while so she's gonna bring you home," Ruby locked her phone and pocketed it, resting her chin on the bars as she eyed Yang cheerily. It was odd, but the kind of odd Yang had grown to expect from her baby sister. She could do anything with enough cheer if she tried hard enough. As a matter of fact, Ruby probably didn't even have to try very hard to achieve that. It was just one of those things she had easily inherited from their mother, almost like it was her birthright. Yang was alright with that. She shined in her own way.

Still, Ruby was looking at her, wide-eyed and smiling with her chin smushed into her arm, and _okay_ , Yang was going to have to take the bait eventually.

"Something on my face, Rubes? You can't seem to get that smile off of yours," Yang cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh, well, y'know," Ruby said, pushing off the arm bars, kicking that easy gait around as she paced around the room, smile still plastered on her face. "Blake's coming over," she shrugged. "And the two of you are going to be here," Ruby stopped, turning to look at her older sister, her smile now both innocent and sinister. "Alone. Together. Alone."

"Oh. Yeah," Yang shrunk into herself a little bit, looking at her legs in thought. She flickered her gaze up to Ruby. "Yeah?"

"She's going to help you finish your exercises, and then take you home. Yeah," Ruby tucked a lock of her behind her ear. She paused, then nodded. "Yeah."

"Yeah?" Yang hoped her voice didn't betray the lilt of hope she had in it. It was... well, she wouldn't exactly call it stupid.

Oh, but it could be categorized into several different layers and levels of stupid, truth be told.

The thing was, it had been months, and Blake had broken up with Sun a while ago, but Yang hadn't thought to make any move.

That was a lie, Yang had thought about making moves. Many, many moves. Inappropriate, dirty moves. It wasn't her fault that the wheelchair was at perfect butt level, and that Blake's butt level was perfect too.

But more seriously, she had resisted any actual thoughts about her relationship with Blake past 'Caring Friend'. There was always something else to do, something more to focus on, and it never felt like the right time. Of course, that was basically the story of the Ballad of Blake and Yang, but in any case, Yang wasn't going to make the first move. Not in a wheelchair, not during physical therapy, not while Blake had only just broken up with her boyfriend like 2 months ago- basically just not right now.

Still, there was that little niggling feeling of _why not_?

And damn it all if that feeling, that little voice, wasn't the most tempting thing to give over to.

Yang sighed internally. It was a complex situation, and it was an awkward time, and it was a weird thought, and all the signs pointed to _Wait for It_ , but the way the wind blew sounded more like _My Shot_. Or maybe she shouldn't take love advice from _Hamilton_.

"Yang," Ruby said, and her silver eyes met Yang's violet eyes, breaking her out of her train of thought. Yang couldn't help but realize again and again how much older that little munchkin had gotten while she had been lost in her own world. "Don't throw away your shot."

Yang scoffed, a smile blooming on her face. "Don't be a nerd," she shoved Ruby's shoulder.

Ruby held her phone up. "I can see your Spotify playlists. I didn't realize you would be so into musicals," she mock whispered, giggling. Yang swatted at her sister, who dodged easily out of the way, what with both of her legs fully functioning and everything. Some people really did have it easy.

"Go hang out with your billionaire girlfriend, you little monster," Yang folded her arms in mock-grump. Ruby giggled again.

"That I will do," she checked her phone, then smiled, pocketing it again in her hoodie. "Your lady is here, and so mine awaits," Ruby bowed a little bit, turning it into a firm hug, before grabbing her bag and dashing out of the room. Yang smiled. Mature as she was, she was still dorky little Ruby Rose. And that was good.

* * *

Yang had to stop the little hitch in her breath when Blake gripped her by the waist, helping her hoist herself up onto the passenger seat of the car. Her fingers were warm, and her presence was a little more than welcome, and her tank top had ridden up _just so_ , and the bare skin contact was-

Maddening. Absolutely maddening. Yang settled into her seat properly, bucking her seat-belt as Blake shoved the folded up wheelchair into the trunk, and slid into the driver's side.

It was like this sometimes, when spending time with Blake turned from enjoyable activity to unbearable situation.

Not because Blake was boring, or overbearing, or annoying. No, Blake was the perfect companion for Yang in her time of need. She was accommodating, thoughtful, and helpful beyond, far beyond reason. She wasn't pitying or overly worried about Yang. Blake knew when to swoop in and when to pull back, and Yang was eternally grateful to her for being such a fantastic person. None of these were the reasons why being with Blake was becoming unbearable.

It was how many times they got close- _so close_ to each other, and that all Yang wanted to do was take Blake's lips in her own, and finally have a proper way to convey all the feelings she felt- gratitude, relief, happiness, passion- without any complications. Of course, even the thought of it was enough to drive Yang up a wall as she stewed in something like guilt. It was driving her insane. She was half convinced that Blake knew this and was just doing it on purpose. Because Blake would do things like lean in close to fix the topmost button on Yang's shirt, her face just inches away, or help yang re-dress the bandages on her arm or worry the little scars on her neck. More than likely it was Yang being more than hyper-aware of Blake and Blake's every little movement.

"Are you hungry?" Blake asked as she drew her own seat-belt. She paused for a second, drawing up a finger to silence Yang's response. It was probably going to be a sarcastic one too. "Don't answer. I know you are. How about sushi? My treat," Blake smiled one of those muted little smiles she had as she cast a little glance at her passenger, who had equal parts happy and confused written on her face. Blake silenced her again. "The nurse was telling me about the good progress you've been making. So, yes, I'd say this would be cause for celebration."

Yang nodded once. "Yes please. I love you."

Blake blushed, and Yang couldn't have been happier. The peeled out of the parking lot, the air filled with comfortable conversation. There was a spark that was struck with Yang's comment, both of them could feel it. Something dangerous had started.

* * *

"It's raw fish," Yang poked at it with a chopstick, her nose scrunched up a little bit. Blake quirked a brow.

"And?"

Yang shot her a look. "You don't have any problem with eating raw fish."

Blake's gaze narrowed at Yang, her bow twitching a little bit. Yang bit her tongue, trying to suppress her smile.

"I don't have a problem with eating sushi," Blake swatted Yang's chopsticks with her own, and grabbed the piece, popping it into her mouth in one swift motion. Her face was impassive as she chewed, almost daring Yang to speak. Yang only smiled wide, propping her chin firmly in her palm. Her expression was something like dreamy, and her gaze never left Blake's. Blake swallowed. "What?"

Yang shrugged, clumsily grabbing hold of her own piece of sushi. "Oh, nothing," she said, and if Yang being Yang herself didn't already betray the authenticity of those words, her smile certainly did.

"Yang," Blake said, with one of those inflections, the little furrow of tone, burying a demand and a question into the word. Yang had long since grown used to it, already well versed in what each call of her name asked of her. And Yang would provide, inevitably, Blake with whatever it was she asked for. She always did. The thought made her want to sigh.

"Blake," Yang began, her tone measured, like she was stepping on a frozen lake, trying to test the ice, seeing if it would hold her weight. It was a peculiar thing, seeing Yang being slow, cautious, tempered. It was almost antithetical to her entire attitude. But it figured that the firecracker would be the one most careful over a thin sheet of frozen water.

And this certainly felt like it. Iced over, slippery and cold, crackling here and there. Whatever Yang was about to venture into, it was to be a careful, slow process. It made the hairs on Blake's neck stand on end, clenching her gut with anticipation. Some part of her recognized the direction the day was about to head into, and some part of her enjoyed it, anticipated it excitedly. A part of her that cried out _God, yes, finally!_

Blake's more cautious, doubtful side took the wheel. It always did.

Yang put her piece of sushi down, tapping the plate with her chopsticks as she searched her mind for the right words. This had to be done right. This was something _important._ It was one of the only things that actually mattered. God help her, she wasn't going to mess this up.

"I-" Yang looked up, and her eyes immediately locked onto Blake's own, those golden orbs speaking volumes on their own. Suddenly she didn't have to think so hard to find the right words. They were right there, written in the dancing colour of Blake's eyes. The right words were her next words, and Yang's fear rose inside her. At the same time, so did her will. It was paradoxical, it was stupid, and it was what Blake did to her on a daily basis. Yang swallowed thickly, composing herself, never letting her line of sight wander from Blake.

"I meant what I said before," Yang said, her voice holding no hesitation, her conviction never lacking. "I meant it when I said I love you," she was convinced, she was absolutely certain that this time, _this time,_ it would be better. "I've always meant it, Blake. I can't imagine a life where I don't."

Blake remained still, absolutely still. A boat in open sea, suddenly finding itself in a hurricane, only she quite enjoyed the rain, and the waters weren't as choppy as she had thought it would be. She didn't say anything, wanting to let Yang say her peace first. The sushi was all but forgotten, and the restaurant faded to black, and it was only the two of them there. It was only Yang and Blake, and they were almost back in a closet, with the roar of a party outside, and the terribly strange, terribly quick thumping of their hearts in sync with each other.

"Blake, I'm _terrified._ I've never been this scared, about anything," Yang's voice was barely a whisper. "I love you so much it scares me. That's never happened to me before," she ran a hand through her hair, the first sign of her nerves showing. "I don't know what to do about it."

Yang sighed, clenching a fist and leaning back, almost shrinking into herself. "I've never felt like this before about anybody, and when-" she swallowed thickly, shaking her head slightly. "When you- when it didn't work out. I could have just... burst into flames," Yang laughed airily. "I couldn't handle the thought that you didn't feel the same way about me. I felt like I was going to die if I couldn't be with you. And I couldn't be with you, so I guess I almost did die. It was stupid, and it was my fault."

"So we're here again, and I want to try again, Blake. I know I was an idiot. A big idiot. But I'm crazy about you. I'm sick in love with you."

The blonde's hand came down onto the table, a slight and quick motion of her arm, just a hair's breadth away from Blake's own. There they lay, palm down, fingers slightly uncurled. They were rough and calloused but the act betrayed the tenderness that Yang possessed. It showed the vulnerability that Yang only dared to show her. It didn't move from it's spot, but there it was. There she was. Blake broke their gaze to flicker a quick look at Yang's hand. When she looked back, she knew the ball was in her court now.

"Yang," Blake said, and she hoped she didn't give away too much just from the tone of her voice alone. She knew how well Yang had gotten at reading her, even though to an outsider, her tone seemed to be stuck in between monotone and monotone plus.

No, she hoped Yang hadn't picked up on what she wanted to say before she said it.

After all, she didn't want to give away too many spoilers.

Blake moved her hand forward, placing it over Yang's own. Her thumb brushed against Yang's palm, and her index managed to find Yang's pulse point, which she was exhilarated to find was beating just as fast as hers. She grabbed hold, and the barest of smiles graced her features.

Well, maybe just one tiny little spoiler.

"Let's go home, Yang," Blake said, her smile slowly growing as she watched Yang's expression morph through the various stages of shock she was going through. Blake got up, fishing some money out of her purse before grabbing the wheelchair and wheeling an almost catatonic Yang out of the restaurant.

It was only in the car when Blake decided to take pity. Before pulling out of the parking lot, she flickered a glance at her right hand. Slowly, cautiously, she reached over, intertwining her fingers with Yang's own. She said nothing more, and started the drive home.

In the occasional glance to her right, Blake's heart almost jumped when she saw Yang's dopey little smile. Especially since she knew her own face carried the same expression.

* * *

"I'm sorry," Blake had said once they were on their way up to the loft.

"What for?" Yang had asked, craning her neck to look at the raven-haired girl behind her.

"For everything that happened," Blake shrugged slightly, biting the inside of her cheek. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault," Yang smiled. Silence hung still in the air for a little while, before Yang spoke again. "Hey, don't be so down on yourself. Here, let me cheer you up. How would you like to go out tomorrow?"

Blake had given her a look. "Go out?"

"Yes, go out," Yang wrung her hands. "On a date with me," she flashed a winning smile.

"Well you've already told me how you feel Yang, so all the mystery's already gone," Blake smirked.

"I'm not hearing a no."

"You're also not hearing a yes."

Yang turned around in her seat, with more than a little effort. "Blake. I'm taking you out on a date."

Blake laughed a little bit. "Okay, Yang."

And that was how Yang found herself in her room, restless and stumped. She'd been more than a little excited at the prospect of an actual date, but it had only now come to her that she didn't actually know what to do.

Rather, she had some very very grand ideas that seemed to always fall short in the execution. She supposed it would be too expensive to hire a skywriter on such short notice, and she didn't think she had enough money or time to bring Blake to those fancy restaurants Uncle Qrow had sometimes fancied bringing his nieces to, if only to laugh at the stuffy suits that occupied the place. Yang supposed she could bring her to the pizza place that Mom had always brought Ruby and her.

But Ruby had already done that to score with Weiss, and no way was Yang going to cop her little sister's moves.

Although, it had worked really really well...

No, Yang decided. She didn't want to bring Blake there just yet anyway. This was going to be their first date. Yang wanted to give Blake an amazing time, something she had never done before.

"Rubes!" Yang called out, wheeling her chair back to poke her head out of her door. There was a faint _bang_ and _crash_ , before light footsteps sprinted their way down the hallway. Ruby appeared in her room, breathless and wide-eyed in panic. Yang chuckled.

"Don't worry you spaz, I'm fine," she waved a hand dismissively.

Ruby visibly relaxed, breathing out and tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Whaddaya need sis?"

"Well..." Yang leaned into her chair, wheeling back in what could only be described as a cocky manner. No easy feat for regular people, but luckily she was Yang Xiao Long, and she was the woman of impossibles. "Yours truly may or may not have scored a date," Yang waggled her eyebrows and flashed a grin.

Ruby quirked a brow. "What? With who?"

Yang paused, going silent and giving Ruby a moment to put two and two together.

Realization slowly dawned on Ruby's face, her mouth slowly forming an O, and she gasped in a huge breath. " _Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-_ "

Yang wheeled past her catatonic sister and shut her door. It had a marginal effect on her little sister's squeals of excitement. She had no doubt the other tenants of the loft had heard it, but they were all already so used to Ruby's various sounds and squeaks, nobody would bother.

" _You'regoingonadatewithblake?_ " Ruby whisper-squeaked, bouncing up and down in excitement. Literally bouncing up and down. Yang reached up and steadied her sister, placing her hands on her shoulders. Yang shushed her baby sister up, laughing all the while. Her excitement was a little more than contagious, and she didn't deny her own excitement over the prospect.

"I'm going on a date with Blake," Yang giggled, almost giddy at the thought. "Okay, yes, I am. Okay. I need your help."

"You need my help?" Ruby stopped bouncing, her face morphing from the unadulterated excitement to incorporate a little bit more than a smidge of cockiness. Truly, the pair were sisters. "You've come to the right place. I suppose you've heard of my legendary first date with a certain billionaire heiress CEO cutie?"

Yang wrinkled her nose. "Gross," she said. "But no, I'm not going to cop your idea. I just need your help coming up with a plan."

"A plan."

"Yes, Ruby. I want to give Blake the best first date she's ever had. I want to do something that she's never done before," Yang said.

Ruby held up a hand, silencing her sister. "Say no more, padawan. Here's the plan..."


	14. They Come Together

"Here's the plan," Weiss said, dragging Blake by her arm. "You're going to come to work with me, because I have important things I need you to do," she checked her phone and sighed at the number of unread emails.

"Important things?" Blake asked.

Weiss punched the button for the elevator and nodded solemnly. "Important things," she pulled her phone up again. "We're finally going to put that art degree of yours to good use," Weiss smiled, a little more than wry.

"Wait, what?"

Weiss tapped out an email as the elevator slowly made its way up. "My photographer for the CFVY spring shoot is out sick, so I'm going to defer to your expertise instead of hiring a freelance or a temp on such short notice."

"Oh," Blake said. She had already made plans. Today was her day off, so it was automatically 'stay-at-home-read-a-book' day. As was every other day off she had. It was also what she did on the days she had work too. If books were alcohol, Blake would have a serious drinking problem. Lucky for her, it was impossible to have a reading problem, and she dared anybody to oppose her on that. Though, she didn't mind this idea much. She would probably be restless at home. She'd already been kept up half the night with the thought of her date. With Yang. Her date that she was going on with Yang. Blake wasn't sure hearts could sigh, but she was pretty sure that was what hers just did.

"Okay," Blake said.

"You'll be paid, of course," Weiss cast a sideways glance at her.

"That would be nice, yes," Blake nodded, already more receptive to the day ahead of her.

So that's how Weiss and Blake spent the day. Working.

And Blake found it a bit more refreshing than the bookstore. Hectic, yes. She could certainly see how it could be stressful. But also satisfying. She adjusted the focus on the camera, looking through the viewfinder to the pretty little mug of one Velvet Scarletina, who was beaming at her old colleague, who she supposed was now her new colleague.

"I'm just filling in for the regular photographer, Velv," Blake rolled her eyes, hidden as it was behind the camera. Velvet scoffed.

"You're getting paid, aren't you?" Velvet asked. "Better than what the bookstore pays?"

Blake tilted her head in a non-committal shrug as she clicked the camera and examined how the photo turned out.

"And you'd be using your degree. And we all already know you're good at this," Velvet shrugged innocently. "I dunno, seems like a pretty good job," she said breezily.

"Hush, stay still," Blake waved her off. Velvet raised good points, but Blake could think about all that later. Later.

* * *

Later, Jaune decided as he put the little box of files in his new little cubicle. He was truly moving on up in the world. His little promotion still meant he had to get coffee for people though. But Jaune decided to just count his blessings. He had three and one quarter walls, and a laptop, and he could decorate his little cubicle with whatever he wanted. Currently, there was only a picture of a thumbs up emoji he had printed off the internet taped to the wall. It was very motivational.

Jaune left, filling up paper cups with coffee. He made his rounds with the tray of coffee, passing it out to the usual suspects. May, Ren, Bolin, Blake-

Blake. As in Blake Belladonna. The girl he vaguely sort of knew by association. She was almost famous around these parts ever since the Christmas party, and he knew that she and Yang had a thing and she was somehow taking photos of the new CFVY spring line already.

"Blake?" Jaune called out, a little more than hesitant. They'd never been really formally introduced. He knew Yang, and he'd met Ruby once or twice before, and Weiss- well, he wasn't going to go anywhere near Weiss. "Uh, hi. I'm- it's me- I'm Jaune," he fumbled over his words, hoping he sounded more charming than stupid, which was essentially his life story anyway.

Blake stilled for a moment before a glimmer of recognition hit her. "Oh. Hi," she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, glancing from him to Velvet, who was sitting and waiting patiently, because she was a saint like that. Blake quirked her head towards the camera, motioning for him to come forward. She leaned back into the camera, and Velvet got back into pose.

"What are you doing here?" Blake asked as the flash went off.

"Oh, I uh work here. I've sort of been working here for almost a year, actually," Jaune laughed, a little more than awkwardly. "What are you doing here should be the question. And it is. My question. So, uh, what are you doing here?"

Blake shrugged a little bit. "Regular guy was out sick; Weiss needed a photographer," she leaned away, turning to face Jaune with a curious look on her face. "Though I am now curious why she asked me to do it. Wouldn't you be more qualified for this than I am?" Blake asked. Now it was Jaune's turn to shrug.

"Oh, you know how it is. Gotta work your way up the totem pole and all that. I mostly just organize files and get coffee for everyone."

Blake furrowed her brows a little bit. "Well," she paused, considering for a moment. "Well, here. Do you want to give this a shot?"

Jaune blanched. "Oh, uh, yeah. Yes, yeah, absolutely. I'd love to."

Blake stepped away, and Jaune stepped up to the camera. Oh, he had not imagine that this was how he would get this opportunity. But he took it anyway, because this seemed like the first step of some grand plan coming together for him.

* * *

The first step of Yang's grand plan was coming together very nicely. Of course, Weiss had felt more than a little obligated to help her carry it out. She was happy for the pair, and it did come with the added bonus of potentially hiring Blake and giving her a nicer job than clerking at a quiet old bookstore. Overall, the plan looked to be a win-win situation for everybody involved. It made Weiss a little more than wary. Plans like this didn't come along often, and when they did, it went belly-up more often than not. Call her a pessimist, but Murphy and his stupid law had trumped her life more than a few times.

Just this once, though...

Weiss sighed, shaking her head to dispel all Yang/Blake related thoughts, choosing instead to focus on the emails and emails she had yet to reply to, plus going over the shoot that Blake had manned.

It looked great. In fact, it looked pretty fantastic, even before it was sent for editing. It only solidified Weiss' notion of hiring Blake. She hummed. Maybe the plan would work out after all. And maybe without a hitch, either. God help her, a woman could dream, couldn't she?

 _Knock, knock._

"Come in,Weiss called out absentmindedly, looking over the top of her laptop once the door opened. May looked at her through eye obscured by her pink hair. Somehow her glare of vague annoyance was still conveyed through the obscured line of sight.

"A Blake Belladonna here for you ma'am?" May asked, her voice just a touch sassier than it needed to be. God bless her, May knew how much Weiss liked being left alone to do her work.

"Let her in, May. Thank you," Weiss smiled at her assistant, who only raised both brows before disappearing behind the doors. In walked Blake, who had an amused look on her face.

"You have an assistant. That never even crossed my mind that you would have an assistant," Blake said. Weiss quirked a brow.

"I would never get any work done if May didn't haul all the ruffians out of my office," she replied, dainty and haughty as you please. Blake scoffed, and Weiss smiled. "So, how are you liking work so far?"

"It's... good. It's fun," Blake tilted her head slightly, considering her thoughts.

"I'm glad you feel that way. I just got the photos you sent me- they're looking very good," Weiss pulled up the photos on her laptop. Blake remained silent, rounding around the table to look at her screen. She raised her brows. The photos were good.

"These are good photos. Too bad I didn't take most of them," Blake shrugged. Weiss spun around in her chair, giving Blake the most quizzical of quizzical looks. If her poise and elegance didn't allow her from doing so, Weiss would have gone 'Say what now?'

"I took Velvet's shots, but I... delegated the rest of the photos," Blake said.

"Delegated?"

"Yes. Jaune took them. I didn't know he worked here. You remember Jaune right?"

"Oh," Weiss said, then went back to browsing through the photos. "What does he do here?"

"Mostly gets coffee," Blake leaned into the windowsill looking as cool as she ever was. "You should look into him. Give him a proper job."

"Right," Weiss said, still a little stunned. She remembered Jaune being the slightly more than nervous boyfriend of Pyrrha. Blonde and tall and lanky. And apparently a very good photographer.

"I'm going to finish up the rest of the set with Jaune," Blake pushed off the wall. "Then you and I are going to have a little talk about why I'm actually here."

She walked out the office, closing the door gently and leaving Weiss confounded. That was unexpected.

* * *

Yang had pretty much expected this.

Ruby had put on finger-less gloves, and had put a cap on, which she had put an emphasis on turning backwards, with a determined little look on her face. Yang decided at once that she had gotten her baby sister watching too much TV when they were younger.

"Let's get going!" Ruby pointed a triumphant, cloth-free finger into the air. Yang rolled her eyes.

"Lose the gloves and the vest, then we can go," she said, before wheeling past Ruby and her disappointed sigh.

Ruby- sans gloves and vest, and Yang- sans fully functioning legs, then made their way to the nearest Walmart, equipped only with Weiss' credit card, a list of items they needed, and a determination to make love work.

Ruby wheeled Yang along, who wheeled a cart along, down through the aisles as the pair picked out groceries and ingredients that were absolutely essential for the night Yang had planned for Blake. She only hoped Weiss was able to occupy the lovely lady for the whole day. The pair had only just left for Weiss' work. Ruby and Yang had to work quick if this plan was to work.

"Ruby, quick, get the swirly kind of pasta! No, the swirly one!" Yang pointed up at a shelf that was out of her reach. Honestly, Ruby could barely even reach it too. But Ruby had the added advantage of the ability to defy gravity for a brief moment and jump. After knocking a few bags of pasta off the shelf, Ruby finally nabbed the swirly pasta, flicking it into the cart with a little _swoosh_ sound effect she made with her mouth, before combat rolling over to Yang and pushing the party train along the aisle, feeling thoroughly cool and not at all like a major dork.

"Objective complete! Move into vector quadrant Alpha-Roger-Roger B-42 Flibbidy Floobidy!" Ruby wheeled the party train into the baking goods aisle, making absurd hang motions and eyeing each corner as if checking for enemies.

Then Sun Wukong was in front of them, and then Sun Wukong doubled over and fell on the ground because they had both ran the cart into Sun Wukong at full force.

Oh. Sun was here.

Yang almost deflated. Ruby should have checked her corners for enemies more thoroughly.

"Oooohhhhmigosh!" Ruby started panicking as Sun lay on the floor groaning. She rushed over, kneeling down and examining him. "Oh my gosh Sun, are you okay? Sun, can- can you hear me?"

Faintly, in a whispered and very pained voice, Sun spoke. "My... nuts..."

"Oh," Ruby said.

"Ohohohoh," Yang tried to stifle her laughter. She cleared her throat. "Oh," she said.

"Just... gimme a minute..." Sun waved a limp hand at the both of them. Yang looked at Sun's prone form, then looked to the list, then looked back and Ruby. Time was ticking. The clock wasn't going to stop for any casualty. Especially not Blake's ex-boyfriend. Yang took more than a little childish pleasure in emphasizing the 'ex' part in her mind.

She sighed internally then. This wasn't going to work.

"Ruby," Yang said, then handed her the list. The sacred list. "Go get the rest of the stuff," she said, handing over the cart to Ruby. She gave her sister a quizzical little look that Yang took to mean 'Are you sure?'. She nodded once, and Ruby left, leaving Yang just alone with a very injured Sun. Oh boy.

"Easy there, Sun. Can you stand up?" Yang offered him her hand. Sun groaned, then groaned a little bit more before accepting the hand, and getting on his feet a little unsteadily.

"Okay. Okay, I'm good. I'm good," he said, more in reassurance to himself than anything else. "Oh jeez, I'm really sorry, man, I really didn't see you there."

Yang blanched. Why was he apologizing? What kind of moron was this moron?

"Hey, no, I'm sorry. We crashed into your... bits. Really, that was our bad," Yang wrung her hands, clearing her throat. "Are you okay? Do you need- I mean, we could get... ice?"

Sun shook his head, vehement. "No, no. No. I'm good, really. I- we don't have to get any ice," he straightened himself up with a little effort, shaking himself a little bit. "Anyway, uh. Sorry. Again."

The pair were silent for a while. It was awkward. It was very awkward. Yang cleared her throat again.

"So, how's the," Sun gestured vaguely to Yang's lower half.

"Oh!" Yang realized after a moment of silence that he meant her legs, and the wheelchair she was in, and not... other parts of her. "Oh, right. It's been going good. I've been making progress," Yang patter her knee once. "Not so bad."

"That's great, I'm really happy for you!" Sun said, and the funniest thing was, Yang couldn't detect a hint of sarcasm, or maliciousness in his voice. He seemed genuinely happy that Yang was slowly regaining use of her legs.

"How are you? What are you doing at a Walmart on a Saturday afternoon?" Yang asked, a bit more at ease now, funnily enough.

"Oh, you know. Neptune sent me out on a grocery run. He's been sick and needy all week. Apparently now he wants chicken soup and Oreos. So I'm getting chicken soup and Oreos," he shrugged. Yang stifled her laughter at the thought of Sun being at the blue-haired model's beck and call all week, like an old married couple. It was adorable. Sun offered nothing more than a sheepish smile and an accepting shrug. This was his life.

"That's really sweet of you. How long have you two been together now?" Yang asked, her smile bordering on genuine now.

"Oh, about a decade. The sex stopped a long time ago, but the love never fades," Sun grinned wide. "How about you? Why are you and Ruby out here too?"

Yang paused for a moment, considering the person before her. She hesitated. Could she tell him? Would it be weird? She started panicking.

"We're just... buying some stuff. For, y'know, a sleepover party. Dinner party. Dinner date."

Sun blinked.

"Date. I'm having a date with Blake," Yang said finally, her mouth too fast for her brain to catch up with. In the Rose-Xiao Long household, that was called 'pulling a Ruby', and it was universally frowned about. Yet now, here she was, foot planted firmly in mouth. Oh boy.

"Oh," Sun said. "Oh!" Sun said again. Then, in a split second, where Yang's mind almost kicked into overdrive as her hand twitched to the wheels of her chair, ready to back up, Sun smiled. "You're actually- that's great! You're finally going out with her!"

What.

"What?" Yang asked.

"What?" Sun blanched.

"What?" Yang asked again. Sun kept silent this time. "You- you're happy about this? How are you happy about this?"

"Oh," Sun paused for a moment, then shrugged, and easy, lighthearted motion. "I mean- Blake's happy with you. She loves you. Not to say that she wasn't happy with me. At least, I hope she was happy with me. But it's different," Sun took a breath, collecting his thoughts. "Blake loves you. Really loves you. And she's going to love you for the rest of her life. Nothing I can do about that, but I'm happy that she's happy."

"She told you that?" Yang asked after a little silence. Sun smiled.

"She didn't have to."

Yang sat there in something like shock for a moment. Blake loved her. That was a doozey of a thought. She supposed she knew that on some level. It was just so... surreal to hear it, right here and now. Not as a rejection. Not as an apology. Just an admission. It would have been better coming from Blake herself, but Yang thought that maybe this was for the best. This way she could control herself, and not just burst into flames in front of Blake.

"I'm going to let you get back to it," Sun smiled, motioning his head as Ruby came back with a cart piled with more stuff than she was sure was necessary. Blake definitely wasn't a huge fan of a 20 pack sleeve of Oreos. "Good luck, guys," Sun walked off, a slight limp in his gait from the injuries he sustained in his line of work. Oh, the things he did for the ones he loved. Neptune had better remember this when he needed a favour.

"You all right there, sis?" Ruby asked over the top of the cart. Yang nodded mutely, looked at Ruby, then sighed.

"I don't remember 'giant cookie' being a part of the list," Yang wheeled over to the chart, picking it up. It was absurdly big. It was probably half of Ruby's volume in chocolate chip alone. "Jeez, they really sell everything here, huh?"

"Yup," Ruby replied, chipper as she donned on another pair of finger-less gloves and a vest, this time adorned with Pikachus in bright ugly yellow.

Yang sighed again. "Whatever. It's Weiss' card. This is falling on you," Yang shook her head. Ruby paused.

"Probably not the best idea, huh," she said forlornly as she took the vest and gloves off.

"Probably not the best idea, no," Yang replied.

* * *

"It seems like a bad idea," Blake said, shutting the passenger door and buckling her seat belt. They had spent their whole day at work. At Weiss' work, more specifically. And Blake had worked with Jaune the whole day, who had surprised her with just how talented and knowledgeable he was about photography, modelling and this whole industry in general. Once he had gotten into his stride, the whole nervous boy exterior had melted, and Jaune turned into this confident, formidable photographer. Blake could see what Pyrrha saw in him.

"What seems like a bad idea?" Weiss asked, backing out of her parking spot.

"This. Whatever it is that Yang has put you up to," Blake gestured vaguely around them. "It seems like a bad idea."

Weiss quirked a brow, pulling the car out of the parking lot. "I honestly don't know which one of Yang's bad ideas you're talking about," Weiss admitted.

"Whichever one Yang's put you up to recently. You've distracted me the whole day by getting me to do your dirty work," Blake shot Weiss a look, who promptly ignored it, choosing instead to focus on the road. Car safety was no joke, kids.

"So you've been doing work all day. I'd say that's a good use of your time," Weiss shrugged, deflecting like a pro.

"Don't deflect," Blake pointed a finger at Weiss' face, who batted it away quickly.

"I'm just trying to get to the topic that _you_ seem to be deflecting off of," Weiss shot back, quick on the draw. Blake scowled at her.

"I'm not deflecting anything," she said pointedly.

"So, will you or won't you work for me?"

Blake paused.

"Let's just drive to the loft in silence," she said, after more than a moment's consideration. Weiss gave a satisfied little smirk, smug as could be, as they drove home.

"You know," Weiss said as they pulled into the parking lot of the loft. "Yang may have some harebrained schemes sometimes, but I would trust her on this one," she parked the car, then gave Blake a knowing little look. "After all, it's something very dear to her."

"What is?" Blake asked.

"You," Weiss replied.

They took the elevator up to the loft in anticipatory silence. Blake ran through the various scenarios in her mind of what Yang had cooked up. She parsed through Weiss' cryptic comments and what that would mean, guessing as to what they would find in the loft.

Weiss knocked twice on the door. "We're here!" she called out. At once there was a rustling and shuffling behind the door, before it stopped. Then it opened up.

The lights were dim, and there was a small table in the center of the loft, lit with candles and with a little rose sitting in a bottle atop it. A very fancy looking Ruby Rose, complete with suit vest, penciled-in pencil mustache, and with a towel draped over her arm, cleared her throat, bowing slightly.

"Welcome, Miss Belladonna, we've been expecting you!" She bowed again, with a little more flourish this time. "Please, take a seat. The Madam will be with you shortly."

Blake turned to look at Weiss, who simply urged her along into the loft.

Blake walked in and sat in the chair. Ruby and Weiss retreated into the kitchen area, and she could hear their hushed, excited whispers. Mostly Ruby's hushed, excited whispers and Weiss' shushes. A single light illuminated the end of the hallway, and Blake sat there in numbed silence. This was what Yang had planned? In the space of a day? Blake feared for the future. If this was what Yang could achieve while wheelchair bound, there was no telling what the ability to walk would let her do.

Speak of the devil, and a beautiful woman in a wheelchair appeared in the hallway. She stopped in the middle of the light in the hallway, and Blake's breath hitched at the sight of her. Somehow, wearing the clothes she would normally wear, sitting in the wheelchair she'd sat in for the past few months, in the hallway of the loft they had lived in forever, Yang looked gorgeous.

Yang wheeled her way forward. "Heya, Blake," she smiled, coming to stop opposite her. "You look beautiful today," Yang said, without the barest hint of irony. Blake's heart could melt.

"Yang," Blake smiled in a natural reaction to the blonde woman. "You did all of this?"

"Well, as much as I could," Yang shrugged, looking around as if it were no big deal. "Ruby did a lot of the heavy lifting. I provided moral support. Don't look out at the balcony, by the way," she huffed a laugh. "We couldn't exactly lug all the furniture downstairs," Yang paused, hesitation marring the expression on her face. "Do you like it?"

"Of course I love it, but... why?" Blake shook her head in disbelief.

"Is that really a question?" Yang took a look around the loft, an airy little smile on her face. "It's for you," she said, looking into Blake's eyes. And that was all the answer Yang needed. It made Blake dizzy, just the thought of it.

"I love it," Blake said again, after a period of silence. Yang laughed, relieved.

"Good," she bit her lip. "'Cause it would have been a bitch to lug all the furniture back."

Blake laughed. "Poor Ruby," she said, looking back at the two figures standing in the kitchen.

Yang motioned with her hand, and Ruby came out of the shadows, a wine bottle and two glasses in hand. She gently placed each glass and poured the wine in. To her immense satisfaction and surprise, she managed it perfectly with no spills. She gave a little _yes!_ to Weiss as she retreated back into the kitchen, who only rolled her eyes.

Yang lifted her glass at Blake. "Cheers, Blake. To tonight," Yang said.

"To us," Blake replied, and damned if her heart didn't warm at the sight of Yang smiling like an idiot. She giggled into her wine glass, just as Yang did.

The waitress came back out again, this time with Schnee heiress in tow, with two plates of spaghetti. Ruby bowed as she put the plate down. " _Bon appetit, madame_ ," she laid on the french accent thick. Weiss rolled her eyes again, though the smile was still present on her face.

"Thank you, waitress," Blake said to Ruby, giggling.

" _Mucho gracias_ ," she said, then paused. Then she turned around and walked away. Weiss sighed as Yang and Blake broke out into laughter.

* * *

"They're cute," Ruby sighed, resting her chin on the kitchen counter as she watched Blake and Yang conversing, both having a good time on their date. She was glad Blake had liked the whole thing. Her back was still aching a little from pulling the couch into the balcony. From the looks of it Blake _really_ liked it. Definitely a score for Yang. That made her happy: to just watch it all starting to work out between the both of them. They certainly deserved it, after all. After everything they'd been through. It'd be a huge, terrible shame if it didn't work out. And Ruby would have pulled her back out for nothing.

"I'm happy for them," Weiss said, draping an arm around her and pulling her in close. Ruby settled into Weiss' side.

"I think we were cuter, though," Ruby noted. Weiss considered for a moment, then nodded.

"Yes, we were," she agreed. Ruby smiled.

There was a silence as they both kept watching.

"It'll work this time," Ruby said. It was an unasked question, and an answer that Ruby needed to hear. Weiss sighed, placing a kiss on Ruby's temple and resting her head there.

"It'll work this time," Weiss said. Ruby shut her eyes and nodded. Then she turned to her girlfriend.

"We should leave them alone," she jerked her head a little to the couple behind them. Then Ruby leaned in closer. "Besides, I haven't seen you all day. We've got some romancing to do ourselves."

The pair silently retreated into Weiss' room, smiling.

* * *

"I feel like I should apologize," Yang sighed, biting her lip. Blake narrowed her eyes, now a little bit suspicious.

"Apologize for what? What did you do?"

Yang laughed, shaking her head. "No, no. I mean I should apologize for... this," Yang gestured to her body, sitting in a wheelchair.

Blake waved her off, rolling her eyes. "You don't have to apologize-"

"I do," Yang interrupted, putting a hand up. "I really do. It was selfish of me to go ahead and get myself hurt like that just because I couldn't deal with how I felt," Yang rested her hands in her lap, sighing. "It isn't fair to you, or to anybody. I'm sorry."

"Yang, it wasn't fair of me to..." Blake paused, searching for her words. "Just deny how I feel. I ran away from all of it, just like you. Only I don't have dangerous connections to dangerous people... anymore," Blake shrugged, smiling slightly. "It was my fault as much as it was yours. I should be the one apologizing to you."

There was a silence.

"I guess we can just both say that we're both fuck-ups," Yang said finally. Blake laughed.

"I guess we can," she grabbed her glass, raising it up. "To us fucking up. It led to this, so it couldn't have been all bad."

Yang smiled. "You're right. I'd do it over and over again if it meant that I got you in the end. To us fucking up."

The smile that showed straight white teeth, the lilac eyes that made her feel impossibly bigger and smaller than she could ever be. Blake was thoroughly, insanely, stupidly in love with this woman. She could never imagine denying it. It was an absolute truth, if not an inevitability. Blake wanted nothing more than to wrap herself around Yang at that moment, and hold her and never let go. It was a long, twisty road to get here, and Blake wanted the moment to never leave. She wanted to stay in it, and stay with her, for as long as she could. God, Yang made her heart ache. She didn't think it was even possible to feel like this for someone.

"Yang," Blake said, a hitch in her throat. She got up out of her chair, crossing over the Yang. Slowly, gingerly, she lowered herself, resting on Yang's lap. Yang's hands automatically came to rest at her hips, and she wrapper her own hands around Yang's neck. There was almost no distance between them, and Yang could see clearly into Blake's golden eyes. She was sure Blake had a better view of her in this low lighting than she did, but those golden orbs were hard to miss. In fact, it was almost all Yang could see. It was everything Yang wanted to see. She felt safe in those eyes. She felt at home.

"I love you," Blake said, and now tears had begun to pool in her eyes. It made Yang stagger, it made her heart falter. She felt impossibly high, and she felt so deeply rooted in this woman. Blake brought them closer, leaning her head against Yang's. In a quick moment, Yang's mind flashed back to the day they had almost kissed. She remembered the feeling. How electric it felt, like a sudden jolt through her body. She was leaning down and Blake was leaning up and god, god, the moment was almost perfect, like she could just capture it and store it away forever, just that image and that feeling.

Only she wouldn't have bothered, because this moment, this moment that was happening, that was about to happen, was ten times as better. It was a supernova about to go off. Yang didn't have enough presence of mind to savour the moment, and feel it happening. All that happened was that Yang acted on her thoughts, her most basic instincts, and leaned in.

She captured Blake's mouth in her own.

Goodness, they could have died right there.

Yang couldn't imagine something more perfect that this.

Blake couldn't imagine how she could have lived her life without experiencing this.

Yang wiped away Blake's tears with the pad of her thumb. They laughed. Then they kissed some more.

It was a night to remember.

Blake kissed Yang deeper, and very soon, the both of them were gasping for air. Blake had suddenly found her legs on either side of Yang, and that Yang's hands were traveling from her hips. Blake moaned.

"Your room," she gasped when they pulled away. She giggled as Yang wheeled back as fast as she could down the hall, still focused on trying to kiss Blake as much as she could, and trying to feel Blake in every spot she could.

The next few hours were a haze. An enjoyable, extremely _satisfying_ haze.

But Blake woke up the next morning, and the first thing she thought was that there was no doubt that she wanted to spend the rest of her life like this. Well, not necessarily _exactly_ like this, though Blake couldn't complain, humming a little in contentment as she kissed Yang's bare back, snaking a hand around her waist under the sheets. They snuggled in closer to each other, sighing.

Happy. That's what they were. They were finally happy.

* * *

 **And that's all folks, only not really because there's still an epilogue! Stay tuned.**


	15. Epilogue

Morning came in slow, but a little harsher than what Yang had been expecting. Sunlight beamed in through the slit in the curtains, right into the unfortunate position of on Yang's face. Not for the first time, not for the last time, Yang cursed the Sun. She cursed it for being the reason that she had to crack her eyelids open, to face the day. She wouldn't have minded sleeping more. Sleeping in was always a good idea, and this was an opinion that Yang held very dearly in her heart, and she dared anybody to oppose her on that.

"It's time to get up, Yang," a sleepy voice mumbled from beside her.

That fucking traitorous bitch, Yang thought, and she might have mumbled it too, because she felt a limp hand slap her shoulder. Yang grumbled and pulled Blake in closer.

"It is not time to get up," she said, doing her best imitation of her 9 year old self on the first day of school. Blake laughed against Yang, and she smiled. It had been like this for months now. Blake wondered when Yang was going to give it up, but she figured that this was just an inherent part of her character. Blake sighed, rolling her eyes a little.

"Yang," Blake said, trying to pull away from the taller girl.

"Nooooooo," Yang whined, squeezing Blake. "I don't want to get up, and I don't want you to get up. Stay in bed and cuddle with me."

Blake hummed a little, running fingers up and down Yang's sides. "Honey, both have work today," she said. Yang still wasn't used to that pet name. It made her unreasonably happy every time she heard Blake say it. Yang cracked one eye open, biting back her giant dumb smile, and looked at the bedside clock.

"We got some time," Yang said, settling back into her position as she rested her chin atop Blake's head.

"Like 10 minutes," Blake quirked an unseen brow.

"Then I want to spend those 10 minutes snuggling in bed with you, now stop fighting me and cuddle," Yang said with an air of finality. She couldn't kid herself into ever commanding Blake Belladonna, but she knew her proposition was more than convincing to the smaller girl. And a little hesitation, a little chink in Blake's armour was all Yang needed to carry her plan through. The saying about giving an inch and taking a mile, that was all Yang. Give Yang a hug and she'll smother you for 10 minutes.

10 blissful minutes.

Blake sighed into her girlfriend. "Okay," she said, planting a little kiss on Yang's collar.

"I love you," Yang mumbled.

"We're still going to have to get up eventually," Blake said.

"Then we will," Yang replied.

"Together."

"Then we can take a shower together too," Yang smiled, the insidious little thing blooming on her face. Blake smacked her again.

"I love you too," Blake said after a little pause. Then there was another pause. "Do you want to get married?"

"I already picked out your ring," Yang said, pulling back to look at Blake in the eyes. Their smiles matched, and Blake couldn't have ever imagined fitting this well anywhere else in the world. She'd decided very firmly a while ago that this was where she belonged. Looking at the woman she loved, cuddling and feeling completely at ease. "Are you asking me to marry you?"

"Yes, I am," Blake said, without hesitation.

"Let's get married, Blake," Yang said, leaning in to kiss her. Then she pulled back. "After we get out of bed, though," she settled back into her position. "In 10 minutes."

"In 10 minutes," Blake yawned, cuddling against Yang.

* * *

 **And, that's it. That's the end! I hope you guys really did enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

 **Ahem, if you would allow me to indulge a little bit here. I know nobody ever reads the Author's Notes, so it's cool, whatever. I just have some things I feel like I need to say about this.**

 **I wrote the first chapter of this in one night, in the dark in my room completely alone. I'd just experienced the worst heartbreak of my life. I was in love with my best friend. And, I know that sounds horribly cliche and stupid, but there you go. She'd shut me down hard, and I had the privilege of seeing her with the guy she actually fancied a few hours after, having the loveliest time of her life. Incidentally, they didn't work out. But I just got inspired to write something like this after the daze of my heartbreak.**

 **And it somehow spiraled out of control.**

 **Honestly, I already had the story beats for something like this down, but I hadn't gotten any of the details down. It was kind of an on-the-fly thing, writing this. But it all kind of worked out in the end, so yay!**

 **The reasoning I had for writing this was that I just wanted to turn my sad experience (which honestly seems so asinine to talk about, or even think about now) into something that somebody could find joy in, or at the very least be entertained by. And I went in with the thought that if even one person reads this and enjoys it, I would be absolutely content. But, wow, I didn't actually expect this many people to actually read and enjoy the trash that I write.**

 **Oh, I know my story isn't anything big. Compared to lots of others, mine is probably pretty shit. But that's not the point. The point is that I've (hopefully) managed to write something that people enjoyed, and that it all came from a shitty experience.**

 **I hope that I'm doing something good here by creating something. I figure that's what it's all about, right? Just to keep creating content and to keep bettering it and to not stop.**

 **So I won't stop. I'm going to keep writing, and if people actually like it, I'd be more than honoured to keep doing it.**

 **Okay, so the A/N is longer than the epilogue, whoops.**

 **To end off, I really want to thank you guys for reading this. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. What you do means a lot. Thank you.**


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